State-Independent Ionic Conductivity

Electrolyte design is crucial to create high efficiency electronic devices. Liquids lend themselves to high ionic conductivities, as the free movement of ions is promoted by their inherent positional disorder. However, they present safety issues in practical application. The use of solids as electrolytes is limited by the unavoidable steep drop in conductivity upon the phase transition from the fluid to the solid state.

This thesis focuses on the establishment of the phenomenon of state-independent ionic conductivity, a term used to describe materials which maintain the same mechanism of isotropic ionic conductivity across phase transitions between different states of matter. This behaviour is achieved by exploiting the unique properties of cyclopropenium-based organic salts.