Characterization of Chitosan-starch Blend Based Biopolymer Electrolyte Doped with Ammonium Nitrate.

Polymer electrolyte is an ionic conductor formed by dissolving salt in polymer host. In this work, starch/chitosan blend based polymer electrolyte was prepared with different weight percentage of Ammonium Nitrate (NH4NO3) via solution casting technique. The film was characterized by impedance spectroscopy HIOKI 3531-01 LCR Hi-Tester to measure its ionic conductivity over a wide range of frequency between 50Hz-5MHz and at ambient temperature. Sample with 35 wt% of NH4NO3 shows the highest conductivity of (6.34 ± 1.52) × 10-7 Scm-1. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy were used to correlate the ionic conductivity results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]