Enhancement of Mechanical Stability and Ionic Conductivity of Chitosan-based Solid Polymer Electrolytes Using Silver Nanowires as Fillers

With the emergence of wearable devices and internet of things, it is expected that small flat, and flexible electrochemical devices will be required for these applications. One of the prerequisites for these devices to be applied to such fields is the development of solid polymer electrolytes with high ionic conductivity. Because most solid polymer electrolytes have low ionic conductivity, small organic molecules have been used as plasticizers to increase their ionic conductivity. Since these plasticizers can increase amorphous regions that play the role of ion channels in polymer, their ionic conductivity increases; however, their mechanical stability decreases inversely. Conventionally, to overcome this drawback, inert nanoparticles are added into solid polymer electrolytes as fillers. Herein, we show that 1-dimensional silver nanowires can increase the mechanical stability of chitosan-based solid polymer electrolytes as well as their ionic conductivity more than nanospheres can, and discuss a plausible mechanism for such an enhancement.