Preparation and characterization of cellulose acetate and lithium nitrate for advanced electrochemical devices

Environmental research has the objective of finding solutions to environmental degradation. To this aim, an optimized solid bio-polymer electrolyte (BPE) based on cellulose acetate (CA) with lithium nitrate (LiNO₃) has been developed to achieve the possible energy storage Li-ion batteries. CA is one of the natural polymers with very good film forming capacity. The widespread use of CA is attributed to the availability of renewable resources, non-toxic nature, low cost, and bio-compatible material. Here, we demonstrate an extremely simplest process of solution-casting technique for the development of BPE by incorporating various LiNO₃ compositions (wt.%) with bio-polymer material CA. The crystalline nature of the CA with LiNO₃ has been analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement. The bio-polymer-salt complex formation and the biopolymer-proton interactions have been investigated through Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy has been used to examine the ionic conductivity of the BPEs at room temperature (303 K). The highest ionic conductivity of 1.93 × 10^?3S/cm has been achieved for 50CA/50LiNO₃ polymer electrolyte. Electrochemical studies show that highest BPE has high electrochemical stability windows. The conducting species is found to be Li⁺ ion, which has been confirmed by transference number measurement (TNM). Primary lithium battery with discharge profile has been constructed for 50CA/50LiNO₃. This research will help to identify a new lithium ion membrane for battery technology and other electrochemical device applications.