Ionic conductivity enhancement in the solid polymer electrolyte PEO9LiTf by nanosilica filler from rice husk ash

Rice husk ash is a cheap raw material available in abundance in rice-growing countries. It contains around 85–90 % amorphous silica. Rice husk ash, when subjected to a simple chemical precipitation method, will produce nanosilica which can be used for many industrial and technological applications. In this work, we have successfully synthesized nano-sized silica from local rice husk ash and prepared the nanocomposite solid polymer electrolyte, PEO9LiTf:SiO2. The resulting electrolyte has been characterized by X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry, atomic force microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and complex impedance spectroscopy. The electrolyte shows about a 12-fold increase in ionic conductivity at room temperature due to the silica filler. In the nanocomposite electrolyte, nanosilica particles obtained from rice husk ash behaved very similarly to the commercial grade nanosilica and had a size distribution in the 25- to 40-nm range. As already suggested by us and by others, the O2− and OH− surface groups in the filler surface interact with the Li+ ions and provide hopping sites for migrating Li+ ions through transient H bonding, creating additional high-conducting pathways. This would contribute to a substantial conductivity enhancement through increased ionic mobility. An additional contribution to conductivity enhancement, particularly at temperatures below 60 °C, appears to come from the increased fraction of the amorphous phase, as evidenced from the reduced crystallite melting temperature and the reduced enthalpy of melting due to the presence of the filler.