PEO‐PVP‐NaIO4 Ion‐Conducting Polymer Electrolyte: Inspection for Ionic Space Charge Polarization and Charge Trapping

Abstract

Ion‐conductive solid polymer electrolytes composed from blends of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP), as complexed with the ionic compound sodium periodate (NaIO4), are inspected for the presence of electric charge trapping (CT) and ionic space charge polarization (SCP) under static electric field. Thin films (110 μm‐thick) of these materials are produced at a ratio of the polymers PEO:PVP = 70:30 wt%, the concentration of NaIO4 is 5, 7.5, or 10 wt%. The electrical current at room temperature, as well as the charging/discharging in the films are studied as depending on applied voltage and time. At a detectable level, no SCP and CT processes in PEO‐PVP‐NaIO4 are evidenced, in contrast to identical experiments by PEO film under the same experimental conditions. The largely reduced SCP and CT are of importance for electrochemical applications of the considered ion‐conducting PEO‐PVP‐NaIO4 ion‐polymer coupled system.