Structural investigation on PEO-based polymer electrolytes dispersed with Al2O3 nanoparticles

Thin solid polymer electrolytes based on polyethylene oxide (PEO) and silver triflate (AgCF3SO3) dispersed with various concentrations of aluminum oxide (Al2O3) nanoparticles have been prepared by solution casting technique. These thin polymer films are found to have thickness of the order of 30 to 100 mu m. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns have indicated the amorphous nature of the polymer electrolyte. The differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) traces showed slight change in the glass transition temperature (T-g) whereas the degree of crystallization (X-c) decreases markedly due to the addition of alumina nanoparticles. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectral analysis of all these samples has revealed the presence of absorption bands around 1,000 cm(-1); thus indicating the complexation of silver ions with oxygen in PEO. Employing the Wagner's polarization technique as the standard method, the total ionic transference number for the complexed polymer electrolyte was found to be approximately unity thereby revealing that the significant contribution to electrical conduction was due to ions only.