Preparation and characterization of biopolymer electrolyte based on gellan gum with magnesium perchlorate for magnesium battery

Development of high ionic conducting solid polymer electrolyte is the most challenging and ever-growing research area in science. The present study concentrated on the preparation of gellan gum–based magnesium ion conducting solid biopolymer electrolytes for electrochemical device applications. The magnesium ion conducting solid biopolymer electrolyte has been developed by solution casting technique with 1.0-g gellan gum with different concentrations of Mg (ClO4)2 salts. The prepared polymer electrolytes were characterized by XRD, FTIR, and DSC. The ionic conductivity of the polymer electrolytes has been analyzed by AC impedance analysis; the polymer electrolyte of 1.0-g gellan gum with 0.5 wt % of Mg (ClO4)2 has the maximum ionic conductivity of 1.063 × 10–2 S cm−1 at room temperature. The Mg2+ ion movements have been confirmed by Wagner’s planarization method. By using Evan’s polarization method, the cationic transference number has been obtained at 0.33 for the high conducting polymer electrolyte. The electrochemical stability of the polymer has been studied by using LSV; the high conducting polymer electrolyte is stable up to 2.86 V. The magnesium primary battery has been fabricated with the help of high conducting polymer electrolyte and its performance also studied. The magnesium battery has an open-circuit voltage of 2.52 V.