Polymer Electrolyte: Li⁺ Segmental Hopping

Solid polymer electrolytes conduct lithium ions without any liquid solvent — the ion rides the wiggling backbone of an amorphous polymer chain, hopping from one coordinating oxygen site to the next only when local segmental motion opens a path. This simulator renders a bundle of PEO-like chains with a rigid crystalline lamella through the middle and a swarm of Li⁺ ions that hop stochastically between chain sites, gated by temperature, salt concentration and crystallinity exactly as the Vogel–Tammann–Fulcher law predicts. Watch conduction shut down inside the crystalline slab, speed up as temperature rises, and peak at an intermediate salt loading as ion pairing starts competing with carrier density.