Ionic Liquids/Ionic Liquid Crystals for Safe and Sustainable Energy Storage Systems

Ionic liquid crystals are organic salts having synergistic properties of ionic liquids and liquid crystalline materials endowed with non-covalently bound delocalised ion pairs of large organic cations and anions. They can undergo stimulus-responsive anisotropic phase change, followed by enhancement in ionic diffusion and conductivity, which makes them ideal candidates as electrolyte in energy storage systems. Our goal in this chapter is to survey the key developments in the field of ionic liquid crystalline electrolytes and to generate curiosity in the wider research community in tackling challenges in the electrolyte materials for sustainable energy related devices, such as supercapacitors, Li batteries, fuel cells and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs)

Functional liquid crystalline gels through multi-scale hierarchical self-assembly of LAPONITE® and amidodiol

Energy storage devices accomplished with efficient LAPONITE® liquid crystalline gel electrolytes.</p

High Performing Biobased Ionic Liquid Crystal Electrolytes for Supercapacitors

Production and storage of energy in a highly efficient and environmentally sustainable way is a demand of the current century to meet the growing global energy requirement. Design and development of novel materials and processes that allow precise control over the electrochemical behavior and conductivity of electrolytes is necessary for acquiring such targets. Development of ionic liquid crystals with ordered domains endowed with enhanced ionic conductivity from renewable resources is receiving much interest in this respect. In this paper, we report a unique strategy for the preparation and utilization of ionic liquid crystalline electrolyte derived from a renewable resource: cashew nut shell liquid; an abundantly available waste byproduct from cashew industry. We have prepared imidazolium-based ionic liquid crystal (PMIMP) from cardanol and studied its structure and liquid crystalline phase formation by various techniques. The symmetrical supercapacitor fabricated with mesoporous carbon electrodes employing PMIMP as electrolyte measured a specific capacitance of 131.43 F/g at a current density of 0.37 A/g with excellent cycle stability and 80% capacitance retention after 2000 cycles. All these excellent properties of the prepared ionic liquid crystalline electrolyte suggest its application as an efficient, environmentally friendly and low-cost electrolyte for energy storage devices

Bio-based Ionic Liquid Crystalline Quaternary Ammonium Salts: Properties and Applications

In the present work, we describe the preparation, properties, and applications of novel ionic liquid crystalline quaternary ammonium salts (QSs) of 3-pentadecylphenol, a bio-based low-cost material derived from cashew nut shell liquid. Amphotropic liquid crystalline phase formation in QSs was characterized using a combination of techniques, such as DSC, PLM, XRD, SEM, and rheology, which revealed the formation of one, two, and three dimensionally ordered mesophases in different length scales. On the basis of these results, a plausible mechanism for the formation of specific modes of packing in various mesophases was proposed. Observation of anisotropic ionic conductivity and electrochemical stability suggests their application as a solid electrolyte

Water dispersible electrically conductive poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) nanospindles by liquid crystalline template assisted polymerization

Formation of nanospindles of PEDOT through liquid crystalline template polymerization.</p