DSC and conductivity studies on PVA based proton conducting gel electrolytes

An attempt has been made in the present work to prepare polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) based proton conducting gel electrolytes in ammonium thiocyanate (NH4SCN) solution and characterize them. DSC studies affirm the formation of gels along with the presence of partial complexes. The cole-cole plots exhibit maximum ionic conductivity (2-58 x 10(-3) S cm(-1)) for gel samples containing 6 wt% of PVA. The conductivity of gel electrolytes exhibit liquid like nature at low polymer concentrations while the behaviour is seen to be affected by the formation of PVA-NH4SCN complexes upon increase in polymer content beyond 5 wt%. Temperature dependence of ionic conductivity exhibits VTF behaviour.