Structural, morphological and electrical properties of chitosan/methylcellulose blend polymer doped with different concentrations of NH4NO3

Abstract

Polymer blend electrolytes based on chitosan: methylcellulose loaded with ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) were fabricated by solution cast method and characterized by XRD, FTIR, EIS, FESEM, and TNM techniques. XRD is used to show the decrease of the crystalline structure. FTIR method is used to confirm the interaction between electrolyte elements. The maximum room temperature DC conductivity of 3.54 × 10−4 S cm−1 is provided by the highest conducting system using EIS data. The FESEM method showed that the morphology of the film has a uniform smooth surface at the highest salt concentration. This is in good agreement with the XRD, FTIR, and EIS results. The dielectric constant is high at the low frequency region due to electrode polarization. Transference number measurement (TNM) is used to show the dominant charge carriers. The values of the transference number of electron (telectron) and ion (tion) showed that the ions are dominant. The TNM measurement shows the compatibility of the system for electrochemical energy storage device application.