CHARGE CARRIER DYNAMICS IN ION CONDUCTING POLYMER ELECTROLYTES

Abstract

Ion conduction in polymer electrolytes is of prime interest for their choice and optimum use in electrochemical devices. Since the pioneering works of Wright and Fenton, Armand and others during more than four decades, a variety of ion conducting polymer electrolytes have been prepared and studied for their optimum applications. However, due to non availability of any mechanism for the direct measurement of either mobility of ions or their density (number per unit volume in the electrolyte) major focus remained towards increasing the conductivity and their application in batteries, supercapacitors, etc. Only a few reports were available where these two parameters have been determined by any methods and correlated with other parameters. The basics of physics tells that the conductivity (?) is equal to the product of number of charge carriers contributing to the conduction (n), their mobility (?) and the charge being carried by them. Therefore, in order to enhance the conductivity of electrolytes or at least to know the reason behind the variation in conductivity with any other parameter like doping concentration or temperature, it is absolutely essential to know the values of n or ?. It may be noted that any change in may be due to change in n, or their cumulative effects. The primary parameters n and that control the conductivity have been identified and discussed in this article. © 2022 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc.