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Epoxy blends as a base for bicontinuous structural electrolytes [image] Open Access

Structural supercapacitors require electrolytes that can transport ions efficiently while bearing mechanical loads, known as structural electrolytes (SE). Here, we report the effect of adding the multi-oxirane epoxies, trimethylolpropane triglycidyl ether (TGETMP), 4-(diglycidylamino)phenyl glycidyl ether (GEDGP), tris(4-hydroxyphenyl)methane triglycidyl ether (TGETHP), and tetraglycidyl-4,4′-methylenedianiline (TGEMDA), to the blend of two oxirane bisphenol A diglycidyl ether (DGEBA) and EMIM-TFSI (DGEBA_IL40), on properties and microstructure of the resulting SEs. Additive concentrations were varied between 1- 50 wt% and the SEs were characterized using scanning electron microscopy, impedance spectroscopy, three-point bending and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis. At 2.5 wt% addition, all multi-oxirane epoxies enhanced ionic conductivity, but reduced Young’s modulus, relative to the unmodified SE based on DGEBA+EMIM-TFSI. TGETMP showed the most promising performance by increasing ionic conductivity by 90% and reducing Young’s modulus only by 20%. Small-angle neutron scattering of the curing process of DGEBA_IL40 with the addition of 2.5 wt% TGETMP showed a delay in phase separation kinetics, increase in the cluster correlation length from about 30 Å to 63 Å compared to unmodified system. The impact of reinforcement on SE microstructure was investigated by introducing the carbon aerogel-modified carbon fibre (CF-CAG) sections to the electrolyte mixture. The unmodified SE showed epoxy sheathing on CF-CAG with bead-like morphology on fibres and strut-like morphology in the bulk. While at 2.5 wt%, most additives produced similar morphologies on fibres and bulk, TGETMP maintained a smooth, continuous epoxy layer on fibres with minimal bead formation. Overall, TGETMP at 2.5 wt% provided the best combination of properties, microstructure, and minimized CF-CAG sheathing among studied additives.

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Image

Contributors

Creator: Sharma, Rajat ¹
Contact person: Sharma, Rajat ¹
Data collector: Sharma, Rajat ¹
Data curator: Sharma, Rajat ¹
Editor: Sharma, Rajat ¹
Creator: Shirshova, Natasha ¹
Contact person: Shirshova, Natasha ¹
Editor: Shirshova, Natasha ¹

¹ Durham University, United Kingdom

Funder

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council

Research methods

Other description

Twenty-nine images in TIFF format.

Keyword

Bicontinuous Electrolytes
Structural Electrolytes
Epoxy Blends
Structural Supercapacitors

Subject

Electrolytes
Epoxy compounds
Supercapacitors

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Cited in

Identifier

ark:/32150/r1707957791
doi:10.15128/r1707957791

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY)

Publisher

Durham University

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R. Sharma

Date Uploaded

31 March 2026, 07:03:43

Date Modified

2 October 2026, 10:10:58

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File size: 30886657

Last modified: 2026:03:31 09:33:08+01:00

Filename: RAW_SEM_Dataset.zip

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