TECHNOLOGY AREAS: Air Platform, Materials/Processes, Weapons

ACQUISITION PROGRAM: NAVY Unmanned Combat Air System Advanced Development Program Office ACAT I

The technology within this topic is restricted under the International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITAR), which controls the export and import of defense-related material and services. Offerors must disclose any proposed use of foreign nationals, their country of origin, and what tasks each would accomplish in the statement of work in accordance with section 3.5.b.(7) of the solicitation.

OBJECTIVE: Identify and/or develop ionic liquids that are liquid from -75 C to at least +100 C for use as electrolytes in future Navy applications. Naval air weapons have operational use temperatures of between -65 C to +65 C.

DESCRIPTION: Electroactive polymers can be used to create charge storage devices, electrochromic devices, actuators, and sensors; these devices are all of interest for a variety of Navy applications. All of these devices require the use of an electrolyte, which typically consists of a salt dissolved in water or an organic solvent. For long term stability, wider temperature use windows, larger voltage windows, and improved safety, ionic liquid electrolytes may be preferable. Ionic liquid electrolytes are organic salts that are themselves liquid at room temperature. For use in electroactive polymer-based devices used in Navy applications, the electrolytes must remain liquid from -75 C to at least 100 C. To date there is no known commercially available ionic liquid that maintains reasonable conductivity across that temperature range; in fact, very little information can be found about low temperature performance of ionic liquids. Additionally, for increased shelf life and operating life, it would be preferable if these low temperature ionic liquids were hydrophobic.

If successful, the new electrolyte formulations may increase the temperature use window for electroactive polymer-based devices already under investigation and development within the Navy.

PHASE I: Develop new ionic liquids with melt transitions below -65 C. Investigate viscosity and conductivity of these materials from -70 C to 70 C. PHASE II: Produce sufficient quantities of candidate materials to be tested in test devices such a hybrid high-rate batteries, ultra-capacitors and supercapacitors. Demonstrate fluidity and conductivity of the electrolyte after a 96 hour cold soak at -65 C. Develop cost information and design specifications for limited rate production of acceptable candidates.

PHASE III: Initiate production ionic liquids in commercial quantities. Prepare transition packages for specific platform users or organizational and depot military support units.

PRIVATE SECTOR COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL.DUAL-USE APPLICATIONS: The electrolytes developed from this work could be used in commercial extreme duty batteries, shipping beacons in arctic waters, and charge storage devices on satellites.

REFERENCES: 1.Sea Power 21: Enabling MCPs

2. J. Irvin, D. Irvin, and J. D. Stenger-Smith, "Electrically Active Polymers for Use in Batteries and Supercapacitors," in Handbook of Conducting Polymers, 3rd Ed., T. Skotheim and J. R. Reynolds, eds., Taylor & Francis, Boca Raton, FL, 2007.

3. Sato, T., Masuda, G., and Takagi, K., "Electrochemical properties of novel ionic liquids for electric double layer capacitor applications," Electrochim. Acta, 49(21), 3606, 2004.

KEYWORDS: Ionic liquids; electrolytes; low temperature; extreme duty; charge storage; batteries

TPOC: Jennifer Irvin
Phone: (760)939-6655
Fax: (760)939-1617
Email: [email protected]
2nd TPOC: James Hoover
Phone: (760)939-1645
Fax: (760)939-1733
Email: [email protected]

** TOPIC AUTHOR (TPOC) **

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