Abstract
The present study investigates gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) based on sodium alginate plasticized with glycerol containing either CH3COOH or LiClO4. The membranes showed ionic conductivity results of 3.1 × 10−4 S/cm for the samples with LiClO4 and 8.7 × 10−5 S/cm for the samples with CH3COOH at room temperature. The samples also showed thermal stability up to 160°C, transparency of up to 90%, surface uniformity and adhesion to glass and steel. Moreover, Dynamic Mechanical Analysis revealed two relaxations for both samples and the Ea values were between 18 and 36 kJ/mol. All the results obtained indicate that alginate-based GPEs can be used as electrolytes in electrochemical devices.
Acknowledgements
The authors are indebted to FAPESP, CAPES and CNPq for the financial support given to this research.