Transient formation of internal potentials in solid electrolytes

Electrode effects can play an important role in ion-conducting polymers in which a space charge polarization of mobile internal ions prevails. The ions are shifted in an external field and they are attracted to the electrodes due to Coulomb forces caused by their own image charges. These image charges influence the static and dynamic charge distribution. This can be proved experimentally by measurements of the transient surface potential with the scanning Kelvin probe using polyethylene oxide doped with lithium perchlorate (PEO-LiClO(4)). Simulations performed with a three-dimensional hopping model coincide with the experimental results qualitatively. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3366703]