Facile preparation and characterization of poly(vinyl alcohol)-NaCl-glycerol supramolecular hydrogel electrolyte

The facile preparation of hydrogel electrolyte with high strength, healing ability and thermoplasticity is important and still remains a great challenge. In this paper, a novel way for the preparation of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) supramolecular hydrogel electrolyte was presented. The PVA hydrogel electrolyte was prepared via the hydrogen bonding and salting-out effect. The high performance PVA-NaCl-glycerol hydrogel electrolyte could be obtained by the doping of glycerol and NaCl into PVA aqueous solution and storing at room temperature for 2.0 h. The crystallinity, thermal and mechanical properties of PVA-NaCl-glycerol hydrogel electrolyte were characterized by Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction measurement and tensile testing, respectively. The hydrogel forming mechanism was discussed. The PVA-NaCl-glycerol hydrogels performed the high toughness with the tensile strength and elongation at break of 0.57 ( +/- 0.02) MPa and 575 ( +/- 29)%, respectively. The conductivity of PVA-NaCl-glycerol was as high as 92.5 ( +/- 0.18) mS/cm. The PVA-NaCl-glycerol hydrogel electrolyte behaved the excellent heat healing ability and thermoplasticity. These properties of PVA-NaCl-glycerol are related to the role of glycerol and NaCl. This paper provides a new preparation method and structure design idea for the high performance hydrogel electrolyte.