Structural and electrical properties of cross-linked blends of Xanthan gum and polyvinylpyrrolidone-based solid polymer electrolyte

Research based on solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) has been improved extensively over the past few decades owing to their abundance in nature, non-toxicity, low cost, and biodegradability. In this study, natural microbial polymer Xanthan gum (XG) and biodegradable synthetic polymer polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-based SPEs are synthesized by the solution casting method. The improvement in the amorphous nature of the blend electrolytes is investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD). The complex nature of the blended electrolytes is analyzed using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The conductivity of the 2 XG/98PVP polymer complex is found to be maximum, with a value of 1.01 x 10-6 Scm-1 at room temperature observed by electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). Using a temperature-dependent plot, activation energy (Ea) is found to be minimum with a value of 0.21 eV for the higher conducting sample. From the Argand plot, the non-Debye nature of the polymer electrolytes is confirmed. The lowest relaxation time (& tau;) of 6.2 x 10-5 s is observed for the 2 XG/98PVP electrolyte by using the loss tangent spectra. Transference number analysis (TNA) is observed for the confirmation of conductivity due to ions by Wagner's polarization method.