UC Irvine

This thesis describes a novel approach for probing ionic conductivity of silica ionogel electrolytes on the meso- and nanoscale. These properties are important to know for the development of solid-state energy-storage devices that implement nanostructures. Silica ionogels are of specific interest because they maintain a fluidic state on the nanoscale, allowing for a high conductivity of liquid electrolytes, but on the macroscale, they maintain the stability benefits of solid electrolytes. Using single mesopores in polymer films to restrict the geometry of the ionogel to the desired size, we were able to measure the conductivity using two methods. The first method uses liquid electrolytes and makes measurements similar to how the conductivity in liquid electrolytes is found, the other method probes the solid electrolyte in a way more representative to that of energy storage devices. We concluded that the electrochemical properties of ionogel are not significantly affected by constriction to the mesoscale, meaning they can be useful in the implementation of mesoscale solid-state energy-storage devices.