Characterization of plasticized proton conducting polymer electrolyte and its application in primary proton battery

The effect of poly ethylene glycol (PEG400) as plasticizer on the conductivity of proton conducting solid polymer electrolytes comprising of poly (viny pyrrolidone) (PVP) sulfamic acid (SA) was studied. A complex formation between polymer, salt and plasticizer was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The optical band gap energies of unplasticized and plasticized polymer electrolytes were investigated by using UV-VIS spectroscopy and it was observed that the plasticized polymer electrolyte had low band gap energies compared with unplasticized polymer electrolyte. AC impedance spectroscopy measurement was used to investigate the conductivity of the polymer electrolytes. The highest dc conductivity was found as 1.99 x 10 -7 Scm -1 for 3 mol % SA doped with 97mol% PVP .The conductivity was enhanced by four times with addition of 37 mol % of PEG and was calculated as 8.23x10 -7 Scm -1 . A primary proton battery was fabricated and its discharge characteristics were studied. The open circuit voltage and cell impendence were measured for fresh and after discharge.