Characterization of proton conducting poly[ethylene oxide]: Poly[vinyl pyrrolidone] based polymer blend electrolytes for electrochemical devices

Highlights Highly amorphous PEO/PVP/xwt% NH4NO3 polymer electrolytes are prepared by simple solution casting technique The XRD analysis confirms the amorphous nature of PEO/PVP films and the FTIR and SEM confirm the blending of polymers. Transference number analysis confirms that the prepared polymer electrolytes are mostly ionic conductors. The prepared polymer electrolyte shows potential window between −1.7 to 1.7V. The specific capacitance of the polymer electrolyte decreases with higher scan rate. The proton electrochemical cell was fabricated and the maximum OCV is 0.82V. Proton conducting solid polymer electrolytes comprising PEO: PVP blend with ammonium nitrate in different compositions are prepared by solution casting technique and they are characterized with different techniques. X-ray diffraction (XRD) shows that the prepared polymer electrolytes have amorphous nature. Fourier transform infrared(FTIR) spectroscopy confirms the functional groups present in the polymer membranes. The scanning electron microscopical(SEM) images confirm the presence of smooth surface in the polymer electrolytes. The ionic conductivity values are calculated by ac impedance technique. The maximum ionic conductivity is obtained for 12 wt% ammonium nitrate doped polymer system at ambient temperature (6.39 × 10−5 S/cm). From the transference number analysis by Wagner’s polarization technique, the type of conductivity, mobility and charge-carrier concentration are confirmed. Electrochemical performance is also investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) studies.