Molecular Dynamics Modeling of the Conductivity of Lithiated Nafion Containing Nonaqueous Solvents

We use molecular dynamics to predict the ionic conductivities of lithiated Nafion perfluorinated ionomeric membranes swelled in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and acetonitrile (ACN). The experimental conductivity of lithiated Nafion swollen with DMSO is two orders of magnitude higher than with ACN. Conve...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Burlatsky, Sergei, Darling, Robert M., Novikov, Dmitri, Atrazhev, Vadim V., Sultanov, Vadim I., Astakhova, Tatiana Y., Su, Liang, Brushett, Fikile R
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Electrochemical Society 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/107626
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2211-2164
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7361-6637
Description
Summary:We use molecular dynamics to predict the ionic conductivities of lithiated Nafion perfluorinated ionomeric membranes swelled in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) and acetonitrile (ACN). The experimental conductivity of lithiated Nafion swollen with DMSO is two orders of magnitude higher than with ACN. Conversely, the mobility of Li[superscript +] ions in a solution of LiPF[subscript 6] in ACN is approximately six times higher than in DMSO. In this work, we demonstrate that the ionic conductivity of Nafion is substantially governed by the concentration of free Li[superscript +] ions, i.e. by the degree of dissociation of the Li[superscript +] and SO[subscript 3][superscript −] pairs, and that the inherent mobility of Li[superscript +] in different solvents is of secondary importance.