Copolymerization of methacrylic acid alkali metal salts and polyether‐containing monomers in solid polymer electrolytes

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Abstract
Copolymerization of methacrylic acid alkali metal salts (MAAM; M = Li, Na, K, Rb or Cs) and oligo(oxyethylene) methacrylate (MEO) was carried out in bulk or in poly(oligo(oxyethylene) methacrylate) (PMEO) at 60°C. The copolymers of MAAM and MEO which were obtained by bulk polymerization showed a cation conductivity of around 1 × 10−7 S/cm at room temperature. On the other hand, the copolymers obtained by radical polymerization in PMEO, showed a higher cation conductivity (10−6–10−5 S/cm). Furthermore, higher cation conductivity was observed for the copolymer systems containing alkali metal cations with a larger ion radius. This tendency was explained by the strength of the bond between alkali metal cation and ether oxygens. The degree of dissociation had little effect on this difference in the conductivity. The effective dissociation of methacrylic salts was enhanced in the copolymer compared to the homopolymer because of the suppression of the adjacent dissociative carboxylic acid groups. Arrhenius plots for ionic conductivity show the migration of ions along with the segmental motion of the polymer matrix.