Preparation and characterization of blend polymer electrolyte film based on poly(vinyl alcohol)-poly(acrylonitrile)/MgCl2 for energy storage devices

Abstract

The development of magnesium electrolytes for battery applications has been the demand for electrochemical devices. To meet such demand, in this work solid blend polymer electrolytes were prepared using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) (92.5PVA:7.5PAN) as host polymer, magnesium chloride (MgCl2) of different molar mass percentage (m.m.%) (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6%) as salt and dimethylformamide (DMF) as solvent. Structural, vibrational, thermal, electrical, and electrochemical properties of the prepared electrolytes were investigated using different techniques such as X-ray diffraction pattern, FTIR spectroscopy analysis, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), AC impedance measurement, and transference number measurement. X-ray diffraction studies confirm the minimum volume fraction of crystalline phase for the polymer electrolyte with 0.5 m.m.% of MgCl2. FTIR confirms the complex formation between host polymer and salt. DSC analysis proves the thermal transition of the prepared films are affected by salt concentration. The optimized material with 0.5 m.m.% of MgCl2 offers a maximum electrical conductivity of 1.01 × 10−3 S cm−1 at room temperature. The Mg2+ ion conduction in the blend polymer electrolyte is confirmed from transference number measurement. Electrochemical analysis demonstrates the promising characteristic of these polymer films suitable as electrolytes for primary magnesium batteries. Output potential and discharge characteristics have been analyzed for primary magnesium battery which is constructed using optimized conducting electrolyte.