The Effect of H₂SO₄ Concentration on the Ionic Conductivity of Liquid PMMA Oligomer

To date gel and film type polymer electrolytes have been widely synthesized due to their wide range of electrical properties. However these types of polymer electrolytes exhibit poor mechanical stability and poor electrode-electrolyte contact hence deprive the overall performance of a battery system. Therefore, in order to indulge the advantages of polymer as electrolyte, a new class of polymer electrolyte was synthesized and investigated. In this study, liquid poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) electrolyte was synthesized using the simplest free radical polymerization technique using benzoyl peroxide as the initiator. At this stage, it was found that this liquid PMMA oligomer (MW=3000 g/ mole) has a potential as electrolyte in electrochemical devices. It was found that an ionic conductivity of ∼10^-7 S/ cm at room temperature can be achieved when only small volume of high molarity of sulfuric acid (H₂SO₄) was doped in the liquid PMMA oligomer. The properties of this liquid PMMA oligomer were further investigated using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). (author)