Protonic Transport Analysis of Starch-Chitosan Blend Based Electrolytes and Application in Electrochemical Device

Abstract

Two polymer electrolyte systems (unplasticized and plasticized) based on starch-chitosan blend doped with ammonium bromide (NH₄Br) were prepared. The conductivity was found to be influenced by the number density (n) and mobility (μ) of the ions. The highest conducting plasticized electrolyte had n and μ values of 8.75 × 10¹⁸ cm⁻³ and 1.03 × 10⁻³ cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹, respectively. Ionic transference number for the highest conducting plasticized electrolyte was found to be 0.92. An electrochemical double layer capacitor (EDLC) using the highest conducting plasticized electrolyte was cycled for 500 times at 0.048 mA cm⁻².

Keywords:

• Polymer electrolyte
• starch-chitosan blend
• ammonium bromide
• transference number
• EDLC

Funding

The authors thank the University of Malaya for the RP010A-13AFR grant provided.