Enhancement of Plasticizing Effect on Bio-Based Polyurethane Acrylate Solid Polymer Electrolyte and Its Properties

• Main Authors: Tuan Syarifah Rossyidah Tuan. Naiwi, Min Min Aung, Azizan Ahmad, Marwah Rayung, Mohd Sukor Su’ait, Nor Azah Yusof, Khine Zar Wynn Lae
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-10-01
• Series: Polymers
• Subjects: biopolymer electrolyte; plasticizer; solid polymer; polyurethane acrylate; conductivity
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2073-4360/10/10/1142

Polyurethane acrylate (PUA) from vegetable oil has been synthesized and prepared for solid polymer electrolyte. Polyol has been end-capped with Toluene 2,4-Diisocyanate (TDI) followed by hydroxylethylmethylacrylate (HEMA) in a urethanation process to produce PUA. The mixtures were cured to make thin polymeric films under UV radiation to produce excellent cured films which exhibit good thermal stability and obtain high ionic conductivity value. 3 to 15 wt. % of ethylene carbonate (EC) mixed with 25 wt. % LiClO4 was added to PUA to obtain PUA electrolyte systems. PUA modified with plasticizer EC 9 wt. % achieved the highest conductivity of 7.86 × 10−4 S/cm, and relatively improved the linear sweep voltammetry, transference number and dielectric properties. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and dielectric analysis were presented. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), followed by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and morphology have been studied. The addition of plasticizer to the polyurethane acrylate shows significant improvement in terms of the conductivity and performance of the polymer electrolyte.