Towards printable water-in-polymer salt electrolytes for high power organic batteries

Internet-of-things which requires electronics, energy convertor and storage must be low-cost, recyclable and environmentally friendly. In the development of printed batteries, ideally all the components (electrode and electrolyte) must be printable to ensure low-cost manufacturing via printing technologies. Most of the printed batteries suffer with low power. One of the reasons is the poor ionic conductivity of the electrolyte due to the high viscosity needed for printing relatively thick layers. In the present work we have demonstrated a new class of electrolyte promising for printed organic batteries following the concept of water-in-polymer salt electrolytes (WIPSEs). These highly concentrated electrolytes of potassium polyacrylate are non-flammable, low cost and environmentally friendly. They possess high ionic conductivities (45–87 mS/cm) independent on the macroscopic viscosities varying from 7 to 33000 cP. The decoupling between ionic transport and macroscopic viscosity enables us to demonstrate organic batteries based on WIPSEs that can deliver a high and constant power (∼4.5 kW/kg; 7.1–11 mW/cm2) independent on the viscosity of the electrolytes. The tunability of the viscosity presents a prerequisite for printed technology manufacturing and compatibility with printed batteries.