PAMPS/PVA/MMT Semi-Interpenetrating Polymer Network Hydrogel Electrolyte for Solid-State Supercapacitors

Polyelectrolyte hydrogels have great potential as gel-polymer electrolytes (GPE) because of their low-cost and environmental benefits. Here a polyelectrolyte hydrogel of high ionic conductivities and mechanical properties was developed via the formation of semi-interpenetrating polymer network (s-IPN) GPE, which consists of Poly (2-acrylamide-2-methyl propane sulfonic acid) (PAMPS), poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and sodium montmorillonite(MMT). The additions of MMT and PVA can both increase the ionic conductivities and the tensile strength of PAMPS. PAMPS/PVA/MMT s-IPN GPE show excellent overall performance of ionic conductivity of 6.4×10 -2 S cm -1 and tensile strength of 24.3 MPa when the ratio of PVA/AMPS is at 0.8:1 and MMT is at 7wt%. When PAMPS/PVA/MMT s-IPN is used as a GPE in supercapacitors, it exhibits good electrolyte behavior with its specific capacitance of 208 F g -1 , close to that of using 4M KOH aqueous solution electrolyte.