Investigation of Corn Biomass/Polyvinyl Alcohol Based Bio‐electrolyte for Lithium‐ion Conducting Battery

Abstract Natural corn biomass‐based electrolytes blended with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) have been prepared as the host matrix with various concentrations of lithium chloride as the ionic dopant. The optimized composition of the cornsilk extract (CSE)/PVA blend–0.9 g CSE + 1 g PVA has been prepared by the solution casting technique. The amorphous nature of the prepared bio‐electrolyte 0.9 g CSE + 1 g PVA + 0.5wt% LiCl (CSLC 0.5) was confirmed by the X‐ray diffraction technique (XRD). This was also supported by the differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) by the lowest glass transition temperature of 46.32 °C for the optimized CSLC 0.5 membrane. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy explains the complex formation of the CSE/PVA blend with the ionic dopant lithium chloride. AC impedance analysis evidenced the maximum ionic conductivity of 2.5 × 10 −3 S cm −1 for the membrane CSLC 0.5. The open circuit voltage was observed as 1.93 V, and its discharge performance has been analyzed.