Study on factors governing the conductivity performance of acylated chitosan-NaI electrolyte system

Hexanoyl chitosan and lauroyl chitosan were prepared by acyl modification of chitosan. Films of hexanoyl chitosan- and lauroyl chitosan-based polymer electrolytes incorporated with different weight concentrations of sodium iodide (NaI) were prepared using the solution casting technique. FTIR and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) results suggested that NaI interacted with both hexanoyl chitosan and lauroyl chitosan. Maximum conductivities of 1.3 × 10^?6 and 1.1 × 10^?8 S cm^?1 are achieved for hexanoyl chitosan and lauroyl chitosan, respectively. Higher conductivity in hexanoyl chitosan is attributed to higher ion mobility as supported by DSC results. The dielectric constants of neat hexanoyl chitosan and lauroyl chitosan are 2.7 and 1.9, respectively, estimated from impedance spectroscopy. Higher dielectric constant of hexanoyl chitosan resulted in greater NaI dissociation and hence higher conductivity. Deconvolution of O═C-NHR and OCOR bands of polymer has been carried out to estimate the amount of dissociated Na⁺ ions from NaI. The findings were in good agreement with conductivity results. In order to assess quantitatively, the conductivity, parameter number, n, and mobility, μ, of ions were calculated using impedance spectroscopy. XRD results showed the influence of NaI on the crystalline content of the electrolyte system. Sample with lower crystalline content exhibited higher conductivity.