Characterization of SiO₂ and Al₂O₃ incorporated PVdF‐HFP based composite polymer electrolytes with LiPF₃(CF₃CF₂)₃

Abstract

Abstract Lithium fluoroalkylphosphate (LiPF 3 (CF 3 CF 2 ) 3 ) based composite polymer electrolytes (CPE) have been prepared in the matrix of polyvinylidenefluoride‐hexafluoropropylene(PVdF‐HFP), using solvent casting technique. The membranes were gelled with ethylene carbonate and diethyl carbonate as a plasticizer and nanosized SiO 2 and nanoporous Al 2 O 3 as fillers. These membranes were subjected to a.c. impedance, DSC, SEM, FTIR, and Fluorescence studies. The a.c. impedance studies and activation energy calculation reveal that 2.5 wt % fillers containing membranes only exhibit maximum conductivity for SiO 2 (1.16 mS cm −1 ) and Al 2 O 3 (0.98 mS cm −1 ), compared to fillers free membranes and beyond 2.5 wt % of such fillers the conductivity tends to decrease. The enhancement of conductivity has been explained in terms of Vogel‐Tamman‐Fulcher (VTF) theory. Molecular interactions by FTIR and local viscosity environment by fluorescence studies have been investigated. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008