Electrical characterization of an ionic conductivity polymer electrolyte based on polycaprolactone and silver nitrate for medical applications

A polymer electrolyte system based on polycaprolactone and silver nitrate with different compositions has been prepared by slow solvent evaporation. The results demonstrate that a decrease in the crystallinity of the sample was evidenced when the salt content was increased. The impedance spectroscopy tests were performed wetting the samples in order to simulate bone water content. The highest conductivity (9.02x10(3) S/m) was found for PCL + 20% AgNO3 with water. The activation energy of this sample was calculated from the Arrhenius plot and it was 0.27 eV while the relative crystallinity obtained from thermal analysis was 74.9%. Nevertheless, for the purpose of this work and considering the conductivity of cortical bone between 2 x 10(3) S/ m and 7 x 10(3) S/ m, PCL + 10% AgNO3 and PCL + 14% AgNO3 may also be used. (C) 2017 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.