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Currently, there is a growing trend of using bio-based materials from renewable resources in the construction of polymer electrolytes. In this study, a gel polymer electrolyte from Jatropha oil-based polyurethane acrylate (PUA) was prepared by doping the PUA with various concentrations (0–30 weight%) of potassium iodide (KI) salt. The PUA gel electrolyte was characterized by Fourier-transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), thermal analysis and electrochemical analysis was performed by using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Subsequently, the dielectric properties of the gel polymer electrolyte were studied. A conductivity of 1.59 × 10−4 S cm−1 was achieved for the PUA incorporated with 25 weight% KI at room temperature. The dielectric study indicated the non-Debye nature of the materials. It has been shown, via transference number measurement that the conducting species in this work were predominantly ions, with only 4% contribution from electrons. An electrochemical stability window of 2.0 V was obtained by using linear sweep voltammetry for the highest conducting gel electrolyte.

We report a novel family of acrylate-functional monomers/oligomers derived from epoxidized jatropha oil using acrylic acid. Acrylated epoxy jatropha oil-based polymer was synthesized in two steps reaction. Oligomers were coated on glass substrate and cross-linked afterwards by UV irradiation. The coating properties such as gloss, scratch hardness and chemical resistance were evaluated via standard methods. A comparative study of jatropha and palm oil based acrylate UV coatings was conducted. The most important and economic method for the acrylation of epoxidized jatropha oil requires a 6-h reaction time compared to palm oil that requires a 20-h reaction time. The acrylated epoxidized jatropha oil exhibited improved glossiness, UV curing time and hardness over the acrylated epoxidized palm oil.