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

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 AgarnMg(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.