Synthesis of Solid Polymer Blend Electrolytes Based on PVP/PAN/Ammonium Thiocyanate: Structural, Electrical, Dielectric and Electrochemical Analysis

Abstract

In this work, a solution casting technique was used to prepare stable and free-standing films of blend polymer electrolytes composed of polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and polyacrylonitrile (PAN) complexed with ammonium thiocyanate (NH4SCN) salt in various compositions. The physical characterization by X-ray diffraction (XRD) was performed to study the structural properties of the samples. Characteristics of these electrolytes were also examined using impedance technique, dielectric studies, transport number measurement (TNM) and linear sweep voltammetry (LSV). The results showed that cationic transport predominated in highly amorphous films. Impedance spectroscopy was utilized to determine the dependence of electrical properties on both composition and temperature. The temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity showed behaviour similar to that of Arrhenius type. It was found that the highest ion conducting polymer blend electrolyte led to lower activation energy.