Characterization of corn starch-based solid polymer electrolyte with graphene oxide for sodium ion batteries / Syakirah Shahrudin

In this work, Corn Starch (CS) was used as the principle host to prepare CS-Sodium salt using solution casting technique. The film of CS-NaI electrolyte with ratio 75:25 yielded highest conductivity which is (1.43 ± 0.12)×10-04Scm-1. The increase in conductivity is also attributed to the increase in amorphousity in the electrolyte as shown from X-ray Diffactogram (XRD) result. The interaction between the polymer and salt were confirmed by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) studies where interactions occurred between Na+ with CS. However, the conductivity value is still not high enough for device application. In order to improve the conductivity of the optimum salted system, Graphene Oxide (GO) was added into the CS-NaI polymer electrolyte system. The system containing 4wt.% of GO exhibited the highest ionic conductivity of (2.49×10-03 ±1.53×10-05) Scm-1. The GO seems to enhance conductance due to the fact that it is providing more effective paths for the migration of conducting ions. In temperature-dependent study, the solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) follow the Arrhenius thermal activated model. In structural study using FTIR and XRD, complexations between polymer, salt and GO were confirmed for all SPEs.