Investigation of ion conducting behaviour of composite chitosan based polymer electrolytes

Abstract

In this study, composite polymer electrolyte systems were prepared by the solution casting technique. The system consists of chitosan as the host polymer, lithium triflate (LiCF3SO3) as the dopant salt, ethylene carbonate and propylene carbonate as the plasticisers and different concentrations of fumed silica (SiO2) as the inorganic filler. The effect of fumed silica on the electrical conductivity at room temperature of the prepared composite polymer electrolytes was studied. The highest ionic conductivity of 4·38×10−5 S cm−1 was obtained upon addition of 2·0 wt-%SiO2. The conductivity–temperature plots for the composite systems were found to obey the Arrhenius relationship. Dielectric analysis of the sample shows non-Debye behaviour.