The effect of antimony trioxide on poly (vinyl alcohol)-lithium perchlorate based polymer electrolytes

A new type of inorganic filler antimony trioxide (Sb2O3) is used to prepare composite polymer electrolytes based on poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and lithium perchlorate (LiClO4) by solution casting technique. The incorporation of Sb2O3 enhances the ionic conductivity at ambient temperature and exhibits the highest ionic conductivity value of 9.51×10−5 S cm−1 upon the addition of 6 wt% Sb2O3. Thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) reveal that the second weight loss is reduced. This shows the improvement in thermal stability of electrolyte film upon addition of Sb2O3. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analyses show that the glass transition temperature (Tg) value decreases with incorporation of Sb2O3. X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies show that the addition of Sb2O3 decreases the degree of crystallinity whereas scanning electron microscope (SEM) studies reveal the surface morphology of the prepared composite polymer electrolytes.