Dielectric spectroscopy characterization of Na+ ion-conducting polymer nanocomposite system PEO-PVP-NaIO₄-TiO₂

We studied the effect of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles (NPs) on dielectric behavior of Na+ ion-conducting salt-complexed polymer nanocomposite system formed from a binary polymer blend of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), with the addition of both sodium metaperiodate (NaIO4) at concentration 10wt.% and TiO2 NPs of size similar to 10nm, at concentrations 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5wt.%. Free standing nanocomposite PEO/PVP/NaIO4/TiO2 films (150 mu m) were characterized at room-temperature by analyzing their complex electrical impedance and dielectric spectra in the range 1Hz-1MHz. At the concentration of 3wt.% of TiO2 NPs, both ion conductivity and dielectric permittivity of the PEO/PVP/NaIO4/TiO2 ion-conducting dielectrics reach an enhancement by more than one order of magnitude as compared to nanoadditive-free case.