International Journal of ChemTech Research CODEN (USA): IJCRGG ISSN : 0974-4290 Vol.6, No.13, pp 5214-5219, November 2014 MESCon 2014 [4th -5 th September 2014] National Conference on Material for Energy Storage and Conversion- 2014 FTIR, XRD and DC Conductivity Studies of Proton Conducting Gel Polymer Electrolytes based on Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) N. Krishna Jyothi 1,2 , K. Vijaya Kumar 1 *, P. Narayana Murthy 2 1 Solid State Ionics Research Laboratory, Department of Physics, K L University, Green Fields, Vaddeswaram-522502, A.P, India. 2 Department of Physics, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Nagarjuna Nagar-522510, A.P, India. *Corres.author: drvijayakambila@gmail.com Abstract: The present study focuses on characterizing PAN+NH 4 I proton conducting polymer electrolyte films prepared by solution casting technique.Two plasticizers, ethylene carbonate (EC) and dimethyl formamide (DMF) were used as solvents in this system. These prepared films can be characterized by using FTIR, XRD and DC conductivity studies. The FTIR spectroscopic study illustrates the detailed interaction of PAN with NH 4 I salt. The XRD spectroscopic patterns of all the prepared polymer electrolyte films disclose the amorphous nature of the films and it also clearly establishes the complexation of the NH 4 I salt with the polymer PAN. The variation of conductivity with salt concentrations of 10 wt% to 40 wt% was studied. The sample containing 30 wt% of NH 4 I exhibited the highest conductivity of 1.49x10 -4 S cm -1 at room temperature (303K) and 2.46x10 -4 S cm -1 at 373K.The conductivity-temperature dependence of polymer electrolyte films obeys Arrhenius behaviour with activation energy in the range of 0.07 eV to 0.25 eV. Very low value of E a suggests that proton (H + ) conduction is superficial in this gel polymer electrolyte of optimum composition. Key words: Gel Polymer electrolyte, Solution Casting Technique, XRD, DC conductivity, Activation energy. Introduction: Solid polymer electrolytes that show high ionic conductivity and good mechanical strength is one of the targets that scientists in the polymer electrolyte field have been pursuing for decades[1]. In recent years polymer gel electrolytes are prepared well, which are formed by incorporating plasticizers into the polymer salt complex[2]. The advantages of gel polymer electrolytes are good in ionic conductivity i.e. comparable with that of liquid electrolytes and ease in processing batteries owing to their self supporting properties. Poly acrylonitrile (PAN) has ionic conductivity and mechanical strength greater than solid polymer electrolyte poly ethylene oxide based electrolytes[3,4]. Many researchers have worked on the conductivity of gel polymer electrolyte systems formed by adding lithium salts to PAN[5-7]. Ethylene carbonate (EC) is a familiar candidate for plasticizer in the gel polymer electrolytes because of its high dielectric constant (95.3) and other attractive properties[8]. The effect of plasticizer in the polymer electrolyte system is to decrease the glass transition temperature and making the polymer become more amorphous and then allowing the ionic carriers to travel freely inside the electrolyte consequently as to raise the ionic conductivity of the electrolyte[9]. In the last two decades, proton conducting polymer electrolytes has attracted a great deal of attention and have been extensively studied for advanced electrochemical devices such as high energy density batteries,