Enhancing ionic conductivity and flexibility in solid polymer electrolytes with rainforest honey as a green plasticizer

Abstract Solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) play a pivotal role in advancing electrochemical devices, such as proton batteries and supercapacitors, owing to their potential for enhancing safety and flexibility. In this work, employs a solution casting technique to prepare SPEs, utilizing chitosan‐dextran blends as the polymer matrix. Ammonium thiocyanate (NH 4 SCN) is incorporated as a charge carrier, while honey is introduced as a plasticizer. The interaction between these materials is confirmed through Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) analysis. X‐ray diffraction (XRD) analysis reveals that the addition of 10 wt.% honey (H10) to the polymer blend results in the lowest degree of crystallinity (15.24%), emphasizing the pivotal role of plasticizers in modulating the structural properties of SPEs. Furthermore, by incorporating 40 wt.% NH 4 SCN (SN40) into the plasticizer‐polymer host (H10), the ambient temperature conductivity obtains its maximum value of (1.08 ± 0.19 × 10 −3 S cm −1 ) with the lowest degree of crystallinity of 10.44%, verify it is the most amorphous electrolyte. The observed trend in conductivity is influenced by the diffusion coefficient ( D ), ion density ( n ), and mobility of the ions ( μ ). Complementing these findings, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) is employed to investigate the surface morphology and cross section of the SPEs, providing a comprehensive understanding of their structural characteristics. From linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), SN40 is electrochemically stable up to 2.2 V and the t ion is 0.97 indicating that the ions are the dominant charge carriers.