Structural and energy storage behavior of ion conducting biopolymer blend electrolytes based on methylcellulose: Dextran polymers

Biodegradable polymer electrolyte has attracted significant attention from both economic and environmental perspectives. This study reports the preparation and analysis of plasticized methylcellulose (MC)-dextran (DN)-ammonium iodide (NH4I) bio-based polymer electrolytes with high ion transport properties using solution casting method. It was discovered that when the glycerol concentrations increased, the FTIR bands changed and dropped in their intensities, revealing good complexation between electrolyte constituents. The glycerol inclusion improved the ionic conductivity up to (3.24 × 10−4) S/cm, according to impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The EEC simulation has been employed to study the electrolyte circuit components further. Transference number measurement (TNM) was used to calculate both transport ion (tion) and electron (tel) values, which were found to be 0.952 and 0.048, respectively. The most conducting sample was found to be stable up to 2 V. Various techniques, such as cyclic voltammetry (CV) and galvanostatic charge–discharge (GCD) were utilized to examine the properties of the assembled EDLC device. At the initial cycle, the designed EDLC had a specific capacitance (Cspe) value of ∼ 44F/g, with an energy density of ∼ 4.9 Wh/kg and a power density of ∼ 500 W/kg.