SAXS/WAXD/DSC Study of Zn²⁺-ion Conducting Polymer Electrolyte

Aleksandra Turković,^1,* Mladen Pavlović,¹ Pavo Dubček¹ and Sigrid Bernstorff²

¹Institute “Ruđer Bošković”, P.O. Box 180, HR-10002 Zagreb, Croatia
²Sincrotrone Trieste, ss. 14, km 163,5 Basovizza, 34012 Trieste, Italy
* Corresponding author:  E-mail: turkovic@irb.hr
Tel.; +385-1-4561-086, fax; +385-1-4561-086

Abstract
Electrolytes are nanostructured materials that are very attractive for batteries or other types of electronic devices.
(PEO)₈ZnCl₂ polymer electrolytes were studied by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) simultaneously recorded with
wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) at the synchrotron ELETTRA. It
was shown by previous impedance spectroscopy (IS) that the room temperature conductivity of polymer electrolyte increased
two times above 65 °C. The SAXS/DSC measurements yielded insight into the temperature-dependent changes
of the grains of the electrolyte. The crystal structure of the nanosize grains was revealed by the simultaneous WAXD
measurements.

Keywords: SAXS, WAXD, DSC, polymer electrolyte, nanocomposite