Characteristics of gellan gum–LiCF3SO3 polymer electrolytes

A new and thermally stable gellan-based polymer electrolytes (PEs) with LiCF3SO3 were prepared and characterized by spectroscopic (FTIR), thermal (TGA, DSC and DMA), structural (X-ray), electrochemical stability (CV, and LSV) and ionic conductivity measurements. The obtained results revealed that the samples are semicrystalline and are thermally stable up to 234 °C. The ionic conductivity measurements revealed that the ionic conductivity of the electrolyte varies with the salt concentration to reach the highest conductivity value of 5.4 × 10− 4 S/cm at room temperature for 40 wt.% of LiCF3SO3. For this compound, when the temperature is raised to 80 °C, the ionic conductivity increases to 6.6 × 10− 4 S/cm with an activation energy of 14.6 kJ/mol. Cyclic voltammetry measurements demonstrated that the plating–striping process in highest conducting gellan–LiCF3SO3 sample occured at 0.55 V and 1.24 V respectively. All results obtained indicate that gellan-based PEs are very promising candidates to be used as electrolytes in Li conducting electrochemical devices.