A work was carried out on a solid polymeric electrolyte system comprising blends of poly (vinyl chloride) and liquid 50% epoxidized natural rubber (LENR50) as a polymer host with LiClO 4 as a salt and prepared by solution casting technique. In this paper, the main study was the effect of LiClO 4 salt concentration on the electrolyte properties. The effect of the salt on the electrolyte properties was characterized and analyzed with impedance spectroscopy (EIS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The EIS result showed that highest ionic conductivity was obtained at 30 wt % salt with a value of 2.3 Â 10 À8 S cm À1 . The XRD results revealed that the LiClO 4 salt was fully complexed within the polymer host as no sharp peaks were observed. However, above 30 wt % of salt, some sharp peaks were observed. This phenomenon was caused by the association of ions. Meanwhile, DSC analysis showed that T g increased as the salt content increased. This implied that LiClO 4 salt had interaction with polymer host by forming coordination bond. The morphologies' studies showed that good homogeneity and compatibility of the electrolyte were achieved. Upon the addition of the salt, formation of micropores occurred. It was noted that micropores which aid in mobility of ions in the electrolyte system has increased the ionic conductivity.

Characterizations were carried out to study on a new plasticized solid polymer electrolyte that was composed of blends of poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC), liquid 50% epoxidized natural rubber (LENR50), ethylene carbonate, and polypropylene carbonate. This freestanding solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) was successfully prepared by solution casting technique. Further analysis and characterizations were carried out by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR), and impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The SEM results show that the morphologies of SPEs are compatible with good homogeneity. No agglomeration was observed. However, upon addition of salt, formation of micropores occurred. It is worth to note that micropores improve the mobility of ions in the SPE system, thus increased the ionic conductivity whereas the crystallinity analysis for SPEs indicates that the LiClO 4 salt is well complexed in the plasticized PVC-LENR50 as no sharp crystallinity peak was observed for 5-15% wt. LiClO 4 . This implies that LiClO 4 salt interacts with polymer host as more bonds are form via coordination bonding. In DSC study, it is found that the glass temperature (T g ) increased with the concentration of LiClO 4 . The lowest T g was obtained at 41.6°C when incorporated with 15% wt. LiClO 4 . The features of complexation in the electrolyte matrix were studied using ATR-FTIR at the peaks of C0O, C-O-C, and C-Cl. In EIS analysis, the highest ionic conductivity obtained was 1.20× 10 −3 S cm −1 at 15% wt. LiClO 4 at 353 K.

The ionic conductivity of ammonium-based solid polymer films of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) blended with MG49, a graft of natural rubber and poly(methyl methacrylate), with various compositions of ammonium triflate NH4CF3SO3, was investigated. As a result, 30 wt.% of NH4CF3SO3-doped polymer electrolyte exhibits the highest ionic conductivity at 6.32×10-4 S/cm at room temperature. The conductivity enhancement can be attributed to the increase in the number of NH4+ as charge carriers. The significance of the blend is the increase of one order in ionic conductivity as compared with pure PVDF electrolyte. The temperature dependence of conductivity of the electrolyte does not obey the Arrhenius law. However, the conductivity increases with temperature and it reached 1.56×10-3 S/cm at 363 K. X-ray diffraction reveals a decrease in crystallinity of the electrolyte upon the addition of NH4CF3SO3 salt. This result is supported by scanning electron microscopy. Linear sweep voltammetry demonstrates that the anodic stability of the electrolyte is up to 4 V. Therefore, the electrolyte shows good compatibility with high-voltage electrode. Hence, this electrolyte system can be a prospective candidate as lithium-ion conducting electrolyte for lithium batteries.

This work presents the preparation of a free standing electrolyte film containing poly(vinyl) chloride (PVC) and 50% liquid epoxidized natural rubber (LENR50) blends as a host for the electrolyte that was doped with lithium perchlorate (LiClO 4 ) as the dopant salt. The electrolyte was prepared via solution-casting technique. From the impedance result, the highest ionic conductivity obtained was 9.6 Â 10 À9 S cm À1 at the 30 wt % of LiClO 4 . This ionic conductivity result was supported by XRD analysis that showed the addition of 5-30 wt % of LiClO 4 salt to the PVC-LENR50 was well dissociated in the electrolyte as no salt peaks were observed. This implies that the salt was fully complexed in the system. Thermal analysis revealed that T g increased with lithium salts concentration. This is due to the formation of transient crosslinkage bonds and increasing viscosity. The morphological studies revealed the good homogeneity of the PVC-LENR50 (70/30) blend as no phase separation was observed. In addition, the formation of micropores with an addition of salts in the electrolyte improved the mobility properties of Li þ ions in the electrolyte system. Hence, it improves the ionic conductivity. V C 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 126: E159-E165, 2012