Zinc ion conducting blended polymer electrolytes based on room temperature ionic liquid and ceramic filler |
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Authors: | Sai Prasanna Candhadai Murali Austin Suthanthiraraj Samuel |
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Affiliation: | Department of Energy, University of Madras, Guindy Campus, Chennai 600025, India |
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Abstract: | Zinc ion conducting nanocomposite gel polymer electrolytes (NCGPEs) comprising of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC)/poly(ethyl methacrylate) (PEMA) blend, zinc triflate Zn(OTf)2] salt, 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (EMIMTFSI) ionic liquid (IL) and fumed silica (SiO2) viz. PVC/PEMA–Zn(OTf)2–EMIMTFSI–SiO2] exhibited the highest ionic conductivity value of 6.71 × 10?4 Scm?1 at room temperature. The ion–filler–polymer interactions and probable conformational changes observed in the structure of the gel composites due to the entrapment of IL and dispersion of nano-sized SiO2 were confirmed from X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) images of NCGPEs demonstrated uniform surface with abundant interconnected micropores. The cationic transport number of NCGPE samples has been found to be appreciably enhanced up to a maximum of 0.69 thus demonstrating a considerable improvement in Zn2+ ion conductivity. The NCGPE film possesses an electrochemical stability window up to 5.07 V (vs. Zn/Zn2+) and ensures feasible zinc stripping/plating in the redox process. The addition of SiO2 into the gel polymer electrolyte system has effectively reduced the glass-transition temperature (Tg) of the NCGPE films and also accomplished improved thermal stability up to approximately 180 °C which were ascertained from Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Thermogravimetric (TG) results. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2019 , 136, 47654. |
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Keywords: | batteries and fuel cells blends composites electrochemistry spectroscopy |
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