Structural, electrical conductivity, and transport analysis of PAN–NH 4 Cl polymer electrolyte system

Poly (acrylonitrile) (PAN) and ammonium chloride (NH4Cl)-based proton conducting polymer electrolytes with different compositions have been prepared by solution casting technique. The amorphous nature of the polymer electrolytes has been confirmed by XRD analysis. The FTIR analysis confirms the complex formation of the host polymer (PAN) with the salt (NH4Cl). DSC measurements show a decrease in Tg with the increase in salt concentration. The conductivity analysis shows that the 25 mol% ammonium chloride doped polymer electrolyte has a maximum ionic conductivity, and it has been found to be 6.4 × 10−3 Scm−1, at room temperature. The temperature dependence of conductivity of the polymer electrolyte complexes appears to obey the Arrhenius nature. The activation energy (Ea = 0.23 eV) has been found to be low for 25 mol% salt doped polymer electrolyte. The dielectric behavior has been analyzed using dielectric permittivity (e*), and the relaxation frequency (τ) has been calculated from the loss tangent spectra (tan δ). Using this maximum ionic conducting polymer electrolyte, the primary proton conducting battery with configuration Zn + ZnSO4·7H2O/75 PAN:25 NH4Cl/PbO2 + V2O5 has been fabricated and their discharge characteristics have been studied.