Zofia Grażyna Żukowska, PhD, Eng

room no 347, contact: e-mail

Field of interest:

FT-ir and Raman studies of polymer electrolytes; anion receptors for polymer electrolytes; synthesis and structure of polymer gel electrolytes; The interest in studies of polymeric electrolytes arises from the possibility of their applications in various electrochemical devices such as batteries, electrochromic windows, displays and fuel cells working from subambient, e.g., -50 C, to moderate, e.g., 200oC, temperatures. Despite intensive search, the mechanism of ionic transport in polymeric electrolytes as well as the electrode-electrolyte interfacial behavior are still under discussion. Interactions between electrolyte components affecting properties of the electrolyte can be effectively studied by various spectroscopy techniques. For example, by observing the vibrational intensity profiles of anions, Raman and FT-ir spectroscopy provides information on the concentration of free ions, ion pairs and ion clusters in doped materials such polyglycols complexed with lithium and sodium salts or aprotic solvents complexed with strong acids. Understanding of the highly overlapped spectra is simplified by performing of 2D covariance analysis of sets of FT-ir or Raman spectra. Nuclear magnetic resonance probes the environment and relaxation of cations as 7Li or 2H ionic conductors such as polyethers doped with lithium and sodium salts or lithium or proton conducting gel electrolytes. The diffusion of protons in proton conducting gels can be measured using static field gradient NMR. High resolution NMR as well as 2D NMR techniques such as 31P - 1H TOCSY NMR and 1H - 1H COSY NMR deliver information about the structure of polymer matrix. The development of solid polymer electrolytes is limited because of their low lithium cation conductivity σLi+ (what is a result of poor salt dissociation in polymeric matrix), and low lithium cation transference number tLi+ (caused by poor lithium cation mobility in the matrix in comparison to anion). One of the approaches which can result in an improvement of the lithium transference number and not lowering of the σLi+ in PEO-based membranes is non-covalent anion binding and thus partial anion immobilization by different neutral anion receptors addition. Anionic receptors of different type: macrocyclic compounds, inorganic fillers with active surface groups and boroorganic compounds are intensively studied by our group.

Selected papers:

  • Żukowska, G.Z., Dranka, M., Jankowski, P., Poterała, M., Bitner-Michalska, A., Marcinek, M.Ł. Insight on the conductivity mechanism in sodium 4,5-dicyano-2-trifluoromethyl-imidazolide-poly (ethylene oxide) system (2018) Electrochimica Acta, 291, pp. 161-167. DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2018.09.073
  • Syta, O., Wagner, B., Bulska, E., Zielińska, D., Żukowska, G.Z., Gonzalez, J., Russo, R. Elemental imaging of heterogeneous inorganic archaeological samples by means of simultaneous laser induced breakdown spectroscopy and laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry measurements (2018) Talanta, 179, pp. 784-791. DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2017.12.011
  • Dranka, M., Jankowski, P., Zukowska, G.Z. Snapshots of the Hydrolysis of Lithium 4,5-Dicyanoimidazolate-Glyme Solvates. Impact of Water Molecules on Aggregation Processes in Lithium-Ion Battery Electrolytes (2018) Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 122 (6), pp. 3201-3210. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b11145
  • Dranka, M., Zukowska, G.Z., Jankowski, P., Plewa-Marczewska, A., Trzeciak, T., Zachara, J. Coordination Abilities of 4,5-Dicyano-2-(trifluoromethyl)imidazolate Anion toward Sodium Cation: Structural and Spectroscopic Studies of Solid and Liquid Glyme-Solvated Electrolyte Systems (2017) Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 121 (48), pp. 26713-26721. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.7b09705
  • Bitner-Michalska, A., Nolis, G.M., Zukowska, G., Zalewska, A., Poterała, M., Trzeciak, T., Dranka, M., Kalita, M., Jankowski, P., Niedzicki, L., Zachara, J., Marcinek, M., Wieczorek, W. Fluorine-free electrolytes for all-solid sodium-ion batteries based on percyano-substituted organic salts (2017) Scientific Reports, 7, art. no. 40036, . DOI: 10.1038/srep40036
  • Jankowski, P., Zukowska, G.Z., Dranka, M., Marczewski, M.J., Ostrowski, A., Korczak, J., Niedzicki, L., Zalewska, A., Wieczorek, W. Understanding of Lithium 4,5-Dicyanoimidazolate-Poly(ethylene oxide) System: Influence of the Architecture of the Solid Phase on the Conductivity (2016) Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 120 (41), pp. 23358-23367. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.6b07058
  • Jankowski, P., Dranka, M., Zukowska, G.Z. Structural studies of lithium 4,5-dicyanoimidazolate-glyme solvates. 2. Ionic aggregation modes in solution and PEO matrix (2015) Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 119 (19), pp. 10247-10254. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.5b01826
  • Jankowski, P., Dranka, M., Zukowska, G.Z., Zachara, J. Structural Studies of Lithium 4,5-Dicyanoimidazolate-Glyme Solvates. 1. from Isolated Free Ions to Conductive Aggregated Systems (2015) Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 119 (17), pp. 9108-9116. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.5b01352
  • Niedzicki, L., Zukowska, G.Z., Bukowska, M., Szczeciński, P., Grugeon, S., Laruelle, S., Armand, M., Panero, S., Scrosati, B., Marcinek, M., Wieczorek, W. New type of imidazole based salts designed specifically for lithium ion batteries (2010) Electrochimica Acta, 55 (4), pp. 1450-1454. DOI: 10.1016/j.electacta.2009.05.008
  • Plewa, A., Chyliński, F., Kalita, M., Bukat, M., Parzuchowski, P., Borkowska, R., Siekierski, M., Zukowska, G.Z., Wieczorek, W. Influence of macromolecular additives on transport properties of lithium organic electrolytes (2006) Journal of Power Sources, 159 (1 SPEC. ISS.), pp. 431-437. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2006.02.041
Zofia Grażyna Żukowska, PhD, Eng