Enhancing the ionic conductivity of PEO based plasticized composite polymer electrolyte by LaMnO3 nanofiller

A new composite polymer electrolyte (CPE) based on polyethylene oxide (PEO) and LaMnO3 as nano filler has been prepared by solution casting technique. SEM analysis clearly shows that the large spherulites in the crystalline domain of PEO disappear in the plasticized (PEO)–NaClO4–LaMnO3 composites and the surface morphology of SPE on plasticization becomes smoother. XRD and DSC data indicates that the amorphous nature of solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) increases with plasticizer concentration and is maximum for 30 wt% poly ethylene glycol (PEG). Impedance spectra of SPEs have also been made to provide an idea about the grain boundary resistance of the polymer electrolytes. Room temperature ionic conductivity of PEO–NaClO4 increases substantially from 1.05 × 10−6 to 5.30 × 10−6 S cm−1 for PEO–NaClO4–(10 wt%) LaMnO3. It further increases with increasing PEG content in PEO–NaClO4–(10 wt%) LaMnO3 and attains a maximum value of 2.60 × 10−4 S cm−1 for 30 wt% PEG based CPE. Arrhenius plot between log σ versus 1000/T of CPE suggests that temperature dependent conductivity is a thermally activated process.