Conductivity, luminescence and vibrational studies of the poly(ethylene glycol) 400 electrolyte based on europium trichloride

Poly(ethylene glycol) 400/(EuCl3)x electrolytic complexes with 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.327 were prepared. The ionic conductivity of these systems was investigated, and the data were satisfactorily well fitted by the empirical Vogel‐Tamman‐Fulcher equation. Two different conductivity regions depending on the electrolytic complexes compositions were observed. The conformation of the poly(ethylene glycol) 400 (PEG 400) in the complexes was investigated by FT‐IR and Raman spectroscopies. These investigations suggest that the PEG 400 chains in PEG 400/(EuCl3)x, present a TGT conformation (T = trans, G = gauche). Moreover, by laser luminescence spectroscopy it was also proved that each Eu3+ ion is coordinated by four oxygen atoms of PEG in a distorted C2v site symmetry.