SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF CHITOSAN/SODIUM ALGINATE BLEND MEMBRANE FOR APPLICATION IN AN ELECTROCHEMICAL CAPACITOR

In this work, we report a stepwise formation method of a chitosan/sodium alginate polyelectrolyte complex (CS/SA PEC) membrane. The proposed method aiming at the utilization of the ultrasonic treatment of chitosan and sodium alginate solution allowed us to obtain a highly homogeneous hybrid membrane for electrochemical usage. The CS/SA PEC membrane saturated in a 2 M Li2SO4 aqueous solution was used in electrochemical double layer capacitor (EDLC) cell to study its applicability as quasi-solid electrolyte. Electrochemical characteristic of EDLC cells was determined by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and galvanostatic charge/discharge methods. The results show that the EDLC cell with CS/SA PEC quasi-solid electrolyte exhibit a comparable specific capacitance (102 F g-1 for 0–0.8 V) to CS reference (100 F g-1 for 0–0.8 V) and commercial separator (99 F g-1 for 0–0.8 V) cells. Thus, the CS/SA PEC membrane can be considered as an alternative modification for chitosanbased materials of electrochemical purpose.