Transport studies on filler-doped chitosan based polymer electrolyte

The room temperature conductivity of the chitosan complex containing 40 wt.% of salt increased from 6.02×10⁻⁶ Scm⁻¹ to 2.10×10⁻⁵ Scm⁻¹ after the addition of 1.0 wt.% aluminosilicate. Conductivity of the electrolyte is contributed from the charge carrier density and ionic mobility. The Rice and Roth model was applied in calculating the mobility, μ and density of ions, n. The number density of ions, n, increases with temperature, while mobility, μ decreases with increasing temperature. This work also suggests that the filler did not change the conduction mechanism of the charge carrier in chitosan-salt-filler complexes but helped to increase the conductivity value of the materials. Paper presented at the International Conference on Functional Materials and Devices 2005, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, June 6 – 8, 2005.