(410f) Ion Transport of Salt-Doped Block Copolymers with Ordered and Disordered Morphologies

Salt-doped block copolymers have garnered increasing attention within the literature, attributed primarily to their application as thermal sensors and rechargeable battery materials. Although the phase-space in which these materials exhibit the expected ordered microphases (body-centered cubic, hexagonal cylinders, gyroids and lamellar structures) has already been well-established, it is also known that block copolymers can form fluctuating, locally segregated disordered morphologies. Considering the salt compositions required to reach the ordered microphases, it is the latter disordered morphologies which are likely to be most-experimentally relevant. Of particular interest, very little work has been conducted to study the ion transport of these different morphologies. As such, we perform coarse-grained simulations of these salt-doped block copolymers where the formation of the different morphologies is driven solely by the presence of ions. Initially, we establish the formation of the different morphologies in salt-doped block copolymers. Subsequently, we explore a wide range of salt compositions and temperatures, where we observe dramatic changes in the ionic conductivity between different morphologies, as well as impressive variability in temperature sensitivity. These observations can provide the guiding principles when designing such materials for sensor and battery applications.