A facile preparation method for anti-freezing, tough, transparent, conductive and thermoplastic poly(vinyl alcohol)/sodium alginate/glycerol organohydrogel electrolyte

Int J Biol Macromol. 2020 Dec 1:164:2512-2523. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2020.08.115. Epub 2020 Aug 15.

Abstract

Facile preparation of organohydrogel electrolyte integrated with good anti-freezing property, toughness, transparency, conductivity and thermoplasticity is important and still remains challenging. Novel conductive and tough poly(vinyl alcohol)/sodium alginate/glycerol (PVA/SA/Gly) composite organohydrogel electrolytes were obtained by a simple method in this paper. PVA and SA was firstly dissolved in a mixed solution of distilled water and glycerol and the PVA/SA/Gly organohydrogel was obtained by the freezing-thawing process, then PVA/SA/Gly organohydrogel was immersed into the saturated NaCl aqueous solution. During the soaking process NaCl would enter into the PVA/SA/Gly organohydrogel to increase the gel strength and conductivity. The PVA/SA/Gly organohydrogel electrolytes performed the high toughness with the tensile strength and elongation at break of 1.43 MPa and 558%, respectively. Moreover, the PVA/SA/Gly organohydrogel electrolytes behaved high transparency, anti-freezing property, conductivity and thermoplasticity due to the incorporation of glycerol. This paper provides a new preparation method for the high-performance organohydrogel electrolyte.

Keywords: Organohydrogel electrolyte; Poly(vinyl alcohol); Self-healing property; Sodium alginate; Transparency.

MeSH terms

  • Alginates / chemistry*
  • Glycerol / chemistry*
  • Hydrogels* / chemical synthesis
  • Hydrogels* / chemistry
  • Polyvinyl Alcohol / chemistry*

Substances

  • Alginates
  • Hydrogels
  • Polyvinyl Alcohol
  • Glycerol