1. Highly conductive, completely amorphous, and stretchable solid lithium-ion polymer electrolyte membranes Thein Kyu, University of Akron, DMR 1161070 Goal: The principal goal is to demonstrate how the fundamental understanding of ternary phase diagrams can provide guidance to facile fabrication of highly conductive, stretchable solid lithium ion polymer battery membranes. Technical Impact: Accomplishment: Achieved extremely high ionic conductivity for solid state polymer electrolyte membrane on the order of 10 -3 S/cm at room temperature that increases to ~ 10 -2 S/cm with increasing temperature to 60 ~ 70 o C. These PEM films are flexible and stretchable, light weight, melt-moldable into various shapes with space saving attributes. Required no solvent to operate covering wide operating temperature range (-40 to 80 o C). The effect of molecular weight of PEGDA was demonstrated. With increasing molecular weight of PEGDA, mobility of Li ion and its transport increased and the strechability also improved. A video demonstrating film flexibility, thermal stability and self-extinguishability can be viewed in our Website (under Research Grant) https://www.uakron.edu/cpspe/about- us/faculty/profile.dot?id=4e3ad076-faa5-4f91- 9e21-e3ce7c0780d1&info=ai4 https://www.uakron.edu/cpspe/about- us/faculty/profile.dot?id=4e3ad076-faa5-4f91- 9e21-e3ce7c0780d1&info=ai4 Figure 2: Plots of room temperature ionic conductivity of the solid PEM films within the isotropic region of the ternary phase diagram of PEGDA/SCN/LiTFSI at 25 °C Figure 1: Fabrication of solid state lithium ion polymer electrolyte membranes via photopolymerization showing excellent transparency

2. Broader Impact: All participating students received interdisciplinary research training covering, polymer materials, physical chemistry, electrochemistry, device engineering and design. Student Awards: M. Echeverri was named recipient of the 2012 Frank N. Kelly Outstanding Graduate Student Award, University of Akron. Jinwei Cao and his classmate (Senlong Gu) won second place for their video, “Amazing Polymer!” in the 2012 SPI Student Video Competition in 2012 year’s theme, “Plastics Mean Innovation.” Training: Daniel Ward (REU student, Chemical Eng., Miami University) and Mireille Mballa (REU student, Electrical Eng., Penn State) received research training in Summer 2012 and 2013, respectively. Cosette Hamad (High School Intern) received research training in Summer 2013. Inspired by this award, she has made commitment to attend the University of Akron in coming Fall. Collaborating with Professor Hendrick Heinz (Polymer Engineering) on molecular modeling and Professor Toshi Miyoshi (Polymer Science) on solid-state NMR study of Li ion transport. Group members currently involved in the NSF- DMR project on development of stretchable solid state lithium ion polymer electrolyte membranes in 2013 (from left: Jinwei Cao (MS student) ; Gupeng Fu (Ph. D. student) ; Mireille Mballa (REU student); Cosette Hamad (HighSchool Intern); Ruxuan He (Ph. D. Candidate); and T. Kyu (PI). Highly conductive, completely amorphous, and stretchable solid lithium-ion polymer electrolyte membranes Thein Kyu, University of Akron, DMR 1161070