Protonic battery based on a plasticized chitosan-NH4NO3 solid polymer electrolyte

Plasticized chitosan-proton conductor polymer electrolyte films were prepared by dissolving chitosan powder, ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) salt and ethylene carbonate (EC) plasticizer in acetic acid solution. The highest conductivity of the chitosan-salt with 40 wt.% NH4NO3 in the film at room temperature was 8.38 ± 4.11 × 10−5 S cm−1 and this increased to 9.93 ± 1.90 × 10−3 S cm−1 with 70 wt.% EC. Batteries with a configuration of: Zn + ZnSO4·7H2O/18 wt.% CA-12 wt.% NH4NO3-70 wt.% EC/MnO2 provided an open-circuit voltage of 1.56 ± 0.06 V. The discharge characteristics using a 1 mA constant current demonstrated a capacity of 17.0 ± 2.6 mAh. The internal resistance was 29.8 ± 5.1 Ω. While the highest power density was 8.70 ± 1.91 mW cm−2.