Study of electrical and electrochemical behavior on copper ion conducting nano-composite polymer electrolyte

Abstract

Poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO)-based nano-composite polymer electrolyte (NCPE) membranes: [85PEO: 15Cu(ClO4)2.6H2O] + x Al2O3, where x = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 wt%, have been casted by hot-press technique. Solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) composition: [85PEO: 15Cu(ClO4)2.6H2O] (wt%) is highest conducting film with room temperature conductivity (σ rt) ~ 1.59 × 10−6 S/cm, has been used as the Ist-phase host matrix and Al2O3 filler particles of nano-dimension (~ 50 nm) as IInd-phase dispersoid. The fractional dispersal of Al2O3 filler (viz. x = 2 wt%) in Ist-phase SPE host resulted into nearly four orders increase in the room temperature conductivity than that of pure PEO. This NCPE film: [85PEO: 15Cu (ClO4)2.6H2O] + 2 Al2O3 has been referred to as optimum conducting composition (OCC) NCPE film. X-Ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) techniques have been used to study the structural, spectroscopic, morphological, and thermal responses, respectively, of SPE/NCPE OCC film material. The ion transport behavior has been characterized in terms of basic ionic parameters viz. conductivity (σ), total ionic (t ion)/cation (t +) transference numbers which have been evaluated using different ac/dc techniques. Temperature dependent conductivity measurement in SPE/NCPE OCC film was done in order to understand the mechanism of ion transport and to evaluate activation energy (E a) from “log σ–1/T” plot.