NU 2022-060

INVENTORS 
Woo Jin Hyun
Lindsay E. Chaney
Mark C. Hersam*

SHORT DESCRIPTION 
A new screen printable ionogel electrolyte will enable printable solid-state lithium-ion batteries that are not only sustainable and safe, but mechanically flexible and scalable.

ABSTRACT
The invention proposes a screen-printable ionogel electrolyte formulation based on hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) nanoplatelets, which will resolve the scalability issue of ionogel electrolyte for solid-state lithium-ion batteries. hBN nanoplatelets are used as a gelation matrix for ionic liquids. The resulting hBN ionogel electrolyte has screen-printable rheological properties. hBN ionogel electrolyte achieves high room-temperature ionic conductivities > 1 mS cm-1, stiff mechanical moduli > 1 MPa, mechanical flexibility, high cycling stability, and scalability. This technique can be applied to flexible solid-state lithium-ion batteries, which is a crucial component of flexible electronics and medical devices. Companies developing flexible electronics such as biosensors, health monitoring devices, and foldable electronic devices should take a close look at this technique.

APPLICATIONS  

• Flexible electronics
• Solid-state batteries
• Printed electronics 

ADVANTAGES  

• High room-temperature ionic conductivities
• Stiff mechanical moduli
• Mechanical flexibility 
• High cycling stability
• Scalability

PUBLICATION
Hyun, W. J., Thomas, C. M., Chaney, L. E., Mazarin de Moraes, A. C., & Hersam, M. C. (2022). Screen-Printable Hexagonal Boron Nitride Ionogel Electrolytes for Mechanically Deformable Solid-State Lithium-Ion Batteries. Nano letters, 22(13), 5372-5378.

Hyun, W. J., Chaney, L. E., Downing, J. R., De Moraes, A. C., & Hersam, M. C. (2021). Printable hexagonal boron nitride ionogels. Faraday Discussions, 227, 92-104.

IP STATUS
US patent applications have been filed.

Photograph of the screen-printed hBN ionogel electrolyte in a 2 x 2 cm square pattern on an aluminum substrate.