Investigation of structural and conductivity properties of poly (vinyl alcohol)-based electrospun composite polymer blend electrolyte membranes for battery applications

Abstract

Solid polymer electrolyte has attracted great interest for the next generation of electrochemical devices such as batteries, but the low ionic conductivity and poor stability has retarded their commercial acceptance for energy storage devices applications. To overcome these issues, strategies to develop composite polymer electrolytes (CPEs) are drawing interest. Nanocomposite solid polymer blend electrolyte membranes based on poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA), poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) of various compositions that contained potassium nitrate (KNO₃) as a dopant salt, and Barium Titanate (BaTiO₃) as a filler were prepared with various concentrations of filler using electrospinning technique. The structural and complex formations due to interaction of various groups of the prepared composite polymer electrolyte membranes were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectral analysis. The conductivity of the PVA-PVP-KNO₃-BaTiO₃ polymer electrolyte systems was found to vary between 3.71×10⁻⁹ and 1.99×10⁻⁵ cm⁻¹ at 298 K with the increase in filler concentration. The maximum room temperature ionic conductivity (1.99×10⁻⁵ S cm⁻¹) has been obtained for 9 wt% BaTiO₃, doped polymer electrolyte system. The addition of filler also enhanced the thermal stability of the electrolyte. The temperature dependence ionic conductivity of the prepared complexed polymer electrolyte systems appears to obey Arrhenius behaviour.