Ion-Conducting Polymer Films as Chemical Sensors

Solid Polymer Electrolytes (SPE) are widely used in batteries and fuel cells because of the high ionic conductivity that can be achieved at room temperature. The ions are usually Li or protons, although other ions can be shown to conduct in these polymer films. There has been very little work on using these films as chemical sensors. We have found that thin films of polymers like polyethyleneoxide (PEO) are very sensitive to low concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCS) like common solvents. We will present impedance spectroscopy of PEO films in the frequency range 0.01 Hz to 1 MHz for different concentrations of VOCS. We find that the measurement frequency is important for distinguishing ionic conductivity from the double layer capacitance and parasitic capacitances