PWA Doped SiO2 PEG Hybrid Materials of Class II

Abstract

Sol-gel is a promising technique for the synthesis of organic-inorganic hybrid materials of class II. One of the most interesting applications for these hybrid materials is as solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs). In particular, when doped with proton species they have potential applications in fuel cells. In this paper SiO2–PEG1500 hybrids of class II were prepared with different contents of SiO2 and phosphotungstic acid. The influence of the SiO2 content in the matrix has been studied. The samples were investigated by thermal analysis (TGA and DSC), X-ray diffraction, infrared spectros-copy (IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Impedance Spectroscopy.