Study and Characterization of a Novel Polymer Electrolyte Based on Agar Doped with Magnesium Triflate

Abstract

In the present work one host natural matrix – agar – has been doped with magnesium triflate (Mg(CF₃SO₃)₂) with the goal of developing electrolytes for the fabrication of solid-state devices. The resulting samples have been represented by the notation Agar_nMg(CF₃SO₃)₂, where n represents the percentage of the magnesium triflate salt proportion in the electrolyte samples. The samples investigated, with n between 0.00% and 37.56%, have been obtained as transparent and thin films. The samples have been characterized by conductivity measurements, thermal analysis, cyclic voltammetry, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The agar-based electrolytes were also tested as ionic conductor in an electrochromic device with the following configuration: glass/indium tin oxide (ITO)/WO₃/agar-based electrolyte/CeO₂–TiO₂/ITO/glass.

Keywords:

• Agar matrix
• electrochromic devices
• magnesium triflate
• solid polymer electrolytes

Acknowledgments

The authors are pleased to acknowledge the financial support provided by the University of Minho and the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (contracts project no. F-COMP-01–0124-FEDER-022716 (ref FCT PEst-C/QUI/UI0686/2011) FEDER-COMPETE, FCT-Portugal; ELECTRA – PTDC/CTM/099124/2008) for laboratory equipment and research staff and financial support given by the Brazilian agency CNPq.