Chemistry of Materials and the ACS Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) are proud to announce that Anthony D’Angelo, Polymer Electrolyte Scientist at Ionic Materials Inc., and Matthew Panzer, Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Tufts University, are the winners of the 2020 Chemistry of Materials Lectureship and […]
Chemistry of Materials and the ACS Division of Polymeric Materials: Science and Engineering (PMSE) are proud to announce that Anthony D’Angelo, Polymer Electrolyte Scientist at Ionic Materials Inc., and Matthew Panzer, Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at Tufts University, are the winners of the 2020 Chemistry of Materials Lectureship and Best Paper Award. The award honors the authors of an article published in 2019 that has outstanding influence across the field of materials chemistry.
The winning paper, “Design of Stretchable and Self-Healing Gel Electrolytes via Fully Zwitterionic Polymer Networks in Solvate Ionic Liquids for Li-Based Batteries,” represents a groundbreaking advancement of stretchable and safe gel electrolytes for lithium-based batteries enabled by the facile synthesis of fully zwitterionic copolymers in a solvate ionic liquid. This study showed that gel stiffness and ionic conductivity values could be tuned by varying the chemical composition of these gel electrolytes, successfully demonstrating at least 100 charge-discharge cycles of prototype batteries employing both graphite and metallic lithium anodes.
“As we move towards an electric world, non-flammable and mechanically flexible batteries for portable and mobile applications would be incredibly advantageous. This work uses an ingenious architecture of repeating zwitterionic units to generate polymeric ionogels that are not only conductive and mechanically flexible, but also self-healing – truly a remarkable combination of properties enabled through precise and elegant materials chemistry,” says Chemistry of Materials Editor-in-Chief Jillian M. Buriak.
Team Work
The Chemistry of Materials Lectureship and Best Paper Award also recognizes the team aspect of research and celebrates the importance of co-authors and teamwork. “This paper came to fruition through a tremendous amount of experimental work performed by Anthony and perseverance on both our parts to interpret the data and write up the manuscript. It was an honor and a privilege to advise such an outstanding and highly productive doctoral student,” said Professor Panzer.
D’Angelo and Panzer will present their research at a symposium and award ceremony during the 2020 Fall ACS National Meeting.