Electrochemical, Structural and Optical Studies on Poly(vinylidene chloride-co-acrylonitrile) Based Polymer Blend Membranes

Poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO), poly(vinylidene chloride -co-acrylonitrile) (PVdC-co-AN) and Lithium perchlorate (LiClO4) based solid polymer blend electrolytes were prepared by solvent casting technique. The ionic conductivity of the polymer blend electrolytes was investigated by varying the PEO and PVdC-co-AN ratio. The maximum ionic conductivity was found to be 2.16×10-6 Scm1 at 303K for PEO (80wt%)/PVdC-co-AN(20wt%)/LiClO4 (8wt%). The structural studies were carried out by X-ray diffraction analysis. The complex formation between the polymers and the salt was confirmed by FT-IR study. The thermal properties of the samples were examined by DSC and TG/DTA. Surface morphology and topographical images of the sample having a maximum ionic conductivity were scrutinised by SEM and AFM respectively. The photoluminescence spectra show the correlation with the conductivity. The direct and indirect band gap energies were calculated by UV- visible studies.