Conductivity and dielectric properties of polyvinyl alcohol–polyvinylpyrrolidone poly blend film using non-aqueous medium N. Rajeswari a , S. Selvasekarapandian a, ⁎, S. Karthikeyan b , M. Prabu a , G. Hirankumar a , H. Nithya c , C. Sanjeeviraja d a Department of Physics, Kalasalingam University, Krishnankoil-626 190, Tamilnadu, India b School of Advanced Sciences, VIT University, Vellore Tamilnadu, India c Physics division, Bu-DRDO, Bharathiar university, Coimbatore- 641046, Tamilnadu, India d Department of physics, Alagappa university, Karaikudi, Tamilnadu, India abstract article info Article history: Received 29 March 2011 Received in revised form 25 July 2011 Available online 30 August 2011 Keywords: Poly blend; PVA; PVP; FTIR; Impedance analysis Several methods such as copolymerization, plasticization and blending etc., have been used to modulate the conductivity of polymer electrolytes. Polymer blending is one of the most important contemporary ways for the development of new polymeric materials and it is a useful technique for designing materials with a wide variety of properties. Polymer blend electrolyte has been prepared with different concentrations of PVA and PVP by solution casting technique using DMSO as solvent. The prepared films have been investigated by different techniques. The increase in amorphous nature of the polymer electrolytes has been confirmed by XRD analysis. The FTIR analysis reveals that the interchain hydrogen bonding within a PVA–PVP blends. The dielectric permittivity (ε*) and modulus (M*) have been calculated from the ac impedance spectroscopy in the frequency range 42 Hz– 1 MHz and the temperature range 308–373 K. The maximum conductivity has been found to be 1.58 × 10 -6 S cm -1 at room temperature for 70PVA:30PVP concentration. The conductivity has been increased to 5.49 × 10 -5 S cm -1 when the temperature is increased to 373 K. The activation energy of all samples was calculated using the Arrhenius plot and it has been found to be 0.53 eV to 0.78 eV. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The dielectric properties of polymer materials play an important role in device applications such as high performance capacitors, electrical cable insulation and electronic packing [1]. Among the various approaches that have been adopted to enhance the conduc- tivity and dimensional stability of polymer electrolytes, the following three are important (i) The use of low-volatility liquids with high dielectric constants as plasticizers in the polymer host [2–4]. (ii) The incorporation of inert fillers into polymer film [5]. (iii) Blending the polymer with another polymer that has a high fluidity [6,7]. Polymer electrolyte prepared by above techniques has not only high ionic conductivity but also favorable mechanical strength. Polymer blends have become commercially and technologically more important than the fabrication of homopolymers and copolymers in the last decade because blending allows one to create a new material with specific properties for the desired application at low cost. These properties mainly depend on the characteristics of the parent homo polymers and the blend composition [8]. The study of these systems is receiving increasing attention since an adequate mixture of the polymers can be used to optimize the performance of polymer based systems in a cheaper and quicker way compared with synthesizing new polymer. Many blend electrolytes have been reported based on PEO–PAN [9], P(VdF-HFP)–PVAc [10], PVC–PMMA [11], PVAc–PMMA [12], PVdF– PEMA [13] and so on. PVA and PVP has been a favorable choice as polymer electrolyte. PVA and PVP blend suggests good mutual compatibility, higher stability and amorphous in nature. PVA is a semicrystalline polymer studied extensively because of its many interesting physical properties which arise from the presence of OH groups and the hydrogen bond formation. PVA is used in many biomedical and pharmaceutical applications due to its advantages such as nontoxic, noncarcinogenic and bioadhesive characteristics with the ease of processing. PVA is a potential material having a very high dielectric strength (N 1000 kV/mm) [1]. PVP is a vinyl polymer possessing planar and highly polar side groups due to the peptide bond in the lactam ring. It is an amorphous polymer. The pyrrolidone rings in PVP contain a proton accepting carbonyl group. PVP deserves a special attention among the conjugated polymers because of its good environmental stability, easy processability and moderate electrical conductivity. Both of the PVA and PVP are soluble in DMSO and miscible in all proportions. When these two polymers are mixed, the interactions between PVA and PVP are expected to occur through interchain hydrogen bonding between carbonyl group of PVP and the hydroxyl Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 357 (2011) 3751–3756 ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: + 91 9443703089. E-mail address: sekarapandian@rediffmail.com (S. Selvasekarapandian). 0022-3093/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2011.07.037 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/ locate/ jnoncrysol