Effect of Amorphousness Degrees and Intermolecular Interactions between Lithium Perchlorate (LiClO4) and Polylactic Acid (PLA) on the Conductivity PLA-Based Polymer Electrolyte Performance

The polymer electrolyte membrane serves as a separator and electrolyte in an energy storage device. The purpose of this study was to investigate the structural properties of polymer electrolyte membranes prepared of lithium perchlorate (LiClO4)-complexed polylactic acid (PLA). The structural properties of the host polymer electrolyte have significant impact on the conductivity value. In this paper, the effect of amorphousness and intermolecular interactions degrees between LiClO4 and PLA on conductivity performance was studied. The polymer electrolyte film of LiClO4-complexed PLA was prepared with various weight percentages of LiClO4 salt (10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, and 60%) in PLA by using solution casting technique. PLA with 50% LiClO4 had the highest degree of amorphousness and the highest percentage of interacting carbonyl groups, which resulted in the highest conductivity of 2.56 x 10-5 S cm-1. As conclusion, the optimum composition of LiClO4 for the amorphousness, interacting of carbonyl group and conductivity obtained, and it can be used to use for further research to improve the conductivity value as purpose to apply it into energy storage devices development. -