We present experimental approaches to probe the ionic conductivity of solid electrolytes at the meso- and nanoscales. Silica ionogel based electrolytes have emerged as an important class of solid electrolytes because they maintain both fluidic and high-conductivity states at the nanoscale, but at the macroscale they are basically solid. Single mesopores in polymer films are shown to serve as templates for cast ionogels. The ionic conductivity of the ionogels was probed by two experimental approaches. In the first approach, the single-pore/ionogel membranes were placed between two chambers of a conductivity cell, in a set-up similar to that used for investigating liquid electrolytes. The second approach involved depositing contacts directly onto the membrane and measuring conductivity without the bulk solution present. Ionic conductivity determined by the two methods was in excellent agreement with macroscopic measurements, which suggested that the electrochemical properties of ionogel based electrolytes are preserved at the mesoscale, and ionogels can be useful in designing meso-scaled energy-storage devices.

中文翻译：

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在中尺度和纳米尺度上探测固体电解质中的离子电流

我们提出了实验方法来探测固体电解质在中尺度和纳米尺度上的离子电导率。基于二氧化硅离子凝胶的电解质已经成为一类重要的固体电解质，因为它们在纳米级既保持流体状态又保持高电导率状态，但在宏观上它们基本上是固态的。聚合物薄膜中的单个中孔显示出可作为流延离子凝胶的模板。通过两种实验方法探查了离子凝胶的离子电导率。在第一种方法中，将单孔/离子凝胶膜置于电导池的两个腔室之间，其设置类似于用于研究液体电解质的设置。第二种方法是将触点直接沉积到膜上，并在不存在本体溶液的情况下测量电导率。