Characteristics of a Plasticized PVA-Based Polymer Electrolyte Membrane and H+ Conductor for an Electrical Double-Layer Capacitor: Structural, Morphological, and Ion Transport Properties

Mohamad A Brza; Shujahadeen B Aziz; Hazleen Anuar; Saad M Alshehri; Fathilah Ali; Tansir Ahamad; Jihad M Hadi

doi:10.3390/membranes11040296

Characteristics of a Plasticized PVA-Based Polymer Electrolyte Membrane and H⁺ Conductor for an Electrical Double-Layer Capacitor: Structural, Morphological, and Ion Transport Properties

Membranes (Basel). 2021 Apr 20;11(4):296. doi: 10.3390/membranes11040296.

Authors

Mohamad A Brza^{1

2}, Shujahadeen B Aziz^{2

3}, Hazleen Anuar¹, Saad M Alshehri⁴, Fathilah Ali¹, Tansir Ahamad⁴, Jihad M Hadi⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Manufacturing and Materials Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, International Islamic University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Gombak 53100, Malaysia.
² Advanced Polymeric Materials Research Lab., Department of Physics, College of Science, University of Sulaimani, Qlyasan Street, Sulaimani 46001, Iraq.
³ Department of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Komar University of Science and Technology, Sulaimani 46001, Iraq.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Medical Laboratory of Science, College of Health Sciences, University of Human Development, Kurdistan Regional Government, Sulaimani 4600, Iraq.

Abstract

Poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-based solid polymer electrolytes doped with ammonium thiocyanate (NH₄SCN) and glycerol were fabricated using a solution casting method. Lithium-based energy storage devices are not environmentally friendly materials, and they are toxic. Thus, proton-conducting materials were used in this work as they are harmless and are smaller than lithium. The interaction between PVA and the electrolyte elements was shown by FTIR analysis. The highest conductivity of 1.82 × 10^-5 S cm^-1 was obtained by the highest-conducting plasticized system (PSP_2) at room temperature. The mobility, diffusion coefficient, and number density of anions and cations were found to increase with increasing glycerol. FESEM was used to investigate the influence of glycerol on film morphology. TNM showed that the cations and anions were the main charge carriers. LSV showed that the electrochemical stability window of the PSP_2 system was 1.99 V. The PSP_2 system was applied in the preparation of an electrical double layer capacitor device. The shape of the cyclic voltammetry (CV) curve was nearly rectangular with no Faradaic peaks. From the galvanostatic charge-discharge analysis, the power density, energy density, and specific capacitance values were nearly constant beyond the first cycle at 318.73 W/Kg, 2.06 Wh/Kg, and 18.30 F g^-1, respectively, for 450 cycles.

Keywords: PVA polymer; ammonium thiocyanate; electrochemical double-layer capacitor device; electrochemical properties; glycerol; solid polymer electrolyte.