Investigation of Electrical Properties, Structure and Morphological Characterization of Mg⁺² Ions Conducting Solid Polymer Electrolyte Based on Poly(vinyl alcohol)

In the present work, solid polymer electrolyte using poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and magnesium perchlorate (Mg(ClO₄)₂) in different compositions has been prepared by the solution-casting technique method. Surface feature of films was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurement. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to determine the complexation of the polymer with the salt. The electrophysical characteristics were measured and analyzed as dependent on the concentration, nature of the solid polymer electrolyte component and ambient temperature. A maximum ionic conductivity value of ∼10^–4 S/cm at 303 K is obtained for PVA_0.6/(Mg(ClO₄)₂)_0.4 composite. The ionic transference number of Mg⁺² mobile ions has been estimated by a dc polarization method. The result reveals that the conducting species are predominantly ions.