Polymer blending is used to overcome the disadvantage of pure starch film, and in the present study, starch has been blended with poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO). The X-ray diffraction study shows that starch/PEO with a ratio of 7 : 3 exhibits the least amount of crystallinity, and this was chosen in the preparation of polymer electrolyte. Films of starch/PEO blends were then prepared via solution casting technique, and their properties with different amounts of ammonium nitrate NH4NO3 were compared. The highest conductivity at room temperature of similar to 2.81 +/- 0.46 x 10(7) S cm(-1) was achieved with the addition of 35 wt-% NH4NO3. Dielectric data were analysed using complex permittivity and complex electrical modulus for the sample with the highest ionic conductivity. The relaxation time tau for these samples was determined, and the plot shows that tau decreases with conductivity of the complexes. The presence of peaks in the imaginary plots shows that the starch/PEO electrolyte system is an ionic conductor.

In this study, blended polymer electrolyte of methylcellulose (MC)/chitosan (CS) was prepared with different weight percentage of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethyl sulfonyl) imide (BMIMTFSI) which acts as ion donor. This polymer blend was prepared by solution casting technique. The micro structure was observed by Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) where the multilayer could possibly be ascribed to the limited chain mobility. Sample having 60 wt% CS: 40 wt% MC was determined to have the most amorphous morphology extracted using deconvoluted data from x-ray Diffractography (XRD). Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) peaks analysis shows the significant shift indicates complexation between ionic liquid and polymer backbone. The film was also characterized by impedance spectroscopy to measure its ionic conductivity. Samples with 45% of BMITFSI exhibit the highest conductivity of (1.51 +/- 0.13) x 10(-6) S cm(-1) at ambient. Conductivity at elevated temperature was also studied, and the electrolytes obeys the Arrhenius behaviour. The conduction mechanism was best presented by small polaron hopping model.

In this work, a free standing and flexible solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) based on nonhazardous and environmental friendly material, carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) was successfully produced in order to overcome environmental and pollution issues. The effect of doping ammonium thiocyanate (NH4SCN) into SPE based on carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) on transport, thermal and electrochemical stability window properties have been investigated for potential application in electrochemical devices. CMC-NH4SCN SPE was prepared via solution casting technique. The properties of the prepared CMC-NH4SCN SPE were characterized via Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) deconvolution, transference number measurement (TNM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) techniques. FTIR deconvolution was performed in order to investigate the dissociation of ions and transport properties of CMC-NH4SCN SPE system and it can be correlated with the ionic conductivity of CMC-NH4 SCN SPE system. The result of TNM was obtained via a DC polarization method where the ionic transference number for the highest conducting CMC-NH4SCN SPE was found to be 0.93. Thus, it can be suggested that the conducting species for the highest conducting CMC-NH4SCN SPE are mainly due to ions. TGA was performed to investigate the thermal stability of CMC-NH4SCN SPE. The value of glass transition temperature of CMC-NH4SCN SPE was obtained from DSC analysis. Electrochemical stability window of the highest conducting CMC-NH4SCN SPE obtained from LSV technique was up to 1.6 V. As a result, it can be inferred that the highest conducting CMC-NH4SCN SPE had shown a promising performance and has a great potential to be applied in electrochemical devices application such as proton batteries. (C) 2019 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.