Abstract
The polymer blend technique was used to improve amorphous phases of a semicrystalline polymer. A series of solid polymer blend films based on polyethylene oxide (PEO) and methylcellulose (MC) were prepared using the solution cast technique. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Polarized optical microscope (POM), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were used to characterize the prepared blend films. The XRD and POM studies indicated that all polymer blend films are semicrystalline in nature, and the lowest degree of crystallinity was obtained for PEO:MC polymer blend film with a weight ratio of 60:40. The FTIR spectroscopy was used to identify the chemical structure of samples and examine the interactions between chains of the two polymers. The interaction between PEO and MC is evidenced from the shift of infrared absorption bands. The DC conductivity of the films at different temperatures revealed that the highest conductivity 6.55 × 10−9 S/cm at ambient temperature was achieved for the blend sample with the lowest degree of crystallinity and reach to 26.67 × 10−6 S/cm at 373 K. The conductivity relaxation process and the charge transport through the hopping mechanism have been explained by electric modulus analysis. The imaginary part of electrical modulus M″ shows an asymmetrical peak, suggesting a temperature-dependent non-Debye relaxation for the PEO:MC polymer blend system.
Highlights
Polymeric materials have been receiving great research attention due to their advantages, such as light-weight, low-cost, high flexibility, good mechanical properties, and ease of fabrication in thin film form [1]
In the case of pure polyethylene oxide (PEO), for the distinctive peaks between 800–1400 cm−1 in the spectrum, the stretching vibration peak of C–O–C splits into three peaks at 1146, 1110, and 1062 cm−1, and the two bands appeared at 1344, and 1359 cm−1 can be ascribed to the bending vibration of CH2 [35]. These results reveal the existence of high crystallinity in the PEO structure [36]
The perfect composition for polymer blend films based on PEO and MC has been optimized using
Summary
Polymeric materials have been receiving great research attention due to their advantages, such as light-weight, low-cost, high flexibility, good mechanical properties, and ease of fabrication in thin film form [1]. These properties make them ideal materials for a broad range of applications in optical, biomedical, and electronic devices [2]. More research efforts have been directed toward the attainment of polymeric films containing large and stable amorphous phases at ambient temperature in order to increase the flexibility of the polymer chains which are responsible for the ion conduction in solid polymer electrolyte systems [24]. The structural, morphological, and electrical properties of different weight ratios of PEO:MC polymer blend films have been investigated, and the composition for this system has been optimized
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