Effect of SiO2 Nano-particles on Electrical Conductivity Studies of PVA/PVP Polymer Blend Doped with Ammonium Iodide

Silicon dioxide nanoparticles are incorporated in the films of polymer blend electrolytes of Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and Polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) doped with Ammonium iodide salt by using solution casting method. The functional groups present in PVA/PVP/NH ₄ I and SiO ₂ polymer blend were found through FTIR studies. Amorphous nature of films was confirmed by the analysis of XRD and also observed that amorphous nature has been increased by adding Nano filler. SEM micrographs are used to find the surface morphology and found that surface become smooth with the addition of Nano fillers. The ionic conductivity and dielectric behavior has been investigated using impedance spectroscopy at various temperatures and found that the base matrix dielectric properties were improved with the addition of Nano filler silicon dioxide. Obtained the maximum conductivity for the optimized sample 0.5wt% of SiO ₂ doped blend polymer at room temperature is 3.9 x 10 ^− 4 S/cm ^− 1 and found that the ionic conductivity values of all the prepared films have been enhanced gradually with temperature. And also it was observed that the dielectric properties were increased with temperature. Glass transition temperature of the polymer nano-composites was calculated from the DSC thermo grams and observed the falling off T _g value with the addition of SiO ₂ .