Ion conductivity in amorphous polymer/salt mixtures

Amorphous polymer/salt mixtures based on polyvinyl alcohol and poly(hydroxy ethylacrylate) and poly(hydroxyethylmethacrylate) are described. The polyvi nylalcohol materials have been prepared by a solvent free hot pressing tech nique as well as the traditional solvent casting method. The hot pressing t echnique allows the production of samples which are genuinely free of solve nts and thereby has allowed an assessment in this work of the effect of res idual solvent on conductivity. The acrylate materials were prepared by dire ct polymerization of monomer/salt mixtures, thus avoiding the need for solv ents. These materials have glass transitions around or well above room temp erature, but nonetheless have conductivities as high as 10(-7) S/cm at room temperature. The temperature and composition dependence of conductivity ar e also presented. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights re served.