Ionic Conductivity, Morphology and Transport Number of Lithium Ions in PMMA Based Gel Polymer Electrolytes

The gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) composed of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) with lithium trifluoromethanesulfonate (LiCF3SO3) salt dissolved in a binary mixture of ethylene carbonate (EC) and propylene carbonate (PC) organic solvents have been prepared by the solution casting technique. The samples are prepared by varying the salt concentrations from 5 wt.% to 30 wt.%. Impedance spectroscopy measurement has been carried out to determine the ionic conductivity of the samples. The sample containing 25 wt.% of LiCF3SO3 salt exhibits the highest room temperature ionic conductivity of 2.56 x 10-3 S cm-1. The conductivity of the GPEs has been found to depend on the salt concentration added to the sample, while at higher salt concentration reveals a decrease in the ionic conductivity due to ions association. The temperature dependence of conductivity from 303 K to 373 K is found to obey the Arrhenius law. The ionic transference number, ti of GPEs has been estimated by the DC polarization method and the value is found to be 0.98, 0.93, and 0.97 for the sample containing 25 wt.%, 5 wt.% and 30 wt.% respectively. This result is consistent with the conductivity studies.