Morphological, electrical, dielectric, and complex electrical modulus studies of copper ion conducting HPMC/PVA hosted nanocomposite electrolyte films.

Solution casting technique is tailored to synthesis the film samples of hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC)/poly vinylalcohol (PVA) blends embedded with various concentrations of copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles (1–4%, wt%). The structural analysis by X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirmed the uniform dispersion of nano CuO into HPMC/PVA blends. The crystalline size as well as the percentage of crystallinity decreases with increasing concentration of CuO in all HPMC/PVA–CuO electrolyte systems. This reduced percentage of crystallinity greatly affects the conductivity property of the polymer electrolytes. The surface morphology and uniformity of phase formation of the samples were analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The samples were analyzed by using electrical impedance spectroscopy by LCR meter (ZM2376) with in the frequency range 50 Hz to 1 MHz. The dielectric constant decreases, while the AC electrical conductivity increases with increasing frequency. The plots of AC conductivity at high frequency region obey Jonscher Power Law. The frequency exponent (S) analysis for various temperature suggested that the correlated barrier hopping (CBH) model supports the ion transport mechanism at high temperatures for CuO (3 wt%) nanocomposite polymer electrolyte film. The presence of non-Debye type conductivity relaxation is observed in this reported polymer electrolytes by analyzing complex electrical modulus. The temperature dependent analysis of dielectric and AC conductivity properties increases with the increase in temperature. This may be due to the ion migration which is significantly improved by the addition of CuO nanoparticles. All estimated results of these nanocomposite polymer electrolytes are strongly convincing its use for the electrochemical cell device applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]