Poly(ethylene oxide)–poly(butadiene) interpenetrated networks as electroactive polymers for actuators: A molecular dynamics study

Molecular dynamics (MD) techniques have been used to study ionic transport and coordination stability in an interpenetrating polymer (IPN) network used as electrolyte for actuator devices. The system consisted of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(butadiene) (PB) in a 80/20% weight ratio at a total polymer of 32%, immersed into propylene carbonate (PC) solutions of LiClO4. The system has been studied for five different concentrations of LiClO4 in PC: 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 and 1.25 M, and with applied external electric fields of 0, 1 and 5 MV/m. It is shown that the polymer matrix has little involvement in the movement of ions and solvent, but that the polymer arrangement is important for the solvent phase nano-structure, and thereby influences the mobility. The mobility of PC is higher than of the other species in the system, but the charged species display higher mobility under external field. The field threshold level for conductivity processes is between 1 and 5 MV/m. It is argued that ion pairing, phase separation and coordination stability are important for the overall dynamic properties.