Electrical characterization of ion conducting biopolymeric gel complexes

Gum Arabica is a naturally occurring conducting biomaterial biopolymer, its various aspects of electrical and structural characteristics have been investigated in our earlier works. In the present work the ionic gel formation of Gum Arabica and its electro-chemical application were experimentally investigated. Hot concentrated aqueous solution of Gum Arabica with phosphoric acid, minimum 16% of solute, was found to form ionic hydrogel on slow cooling. It consists of polyelectrolyte molecules cross-linked by phosphate ions by chemical bonds into an integrated spatial network in water solvent. The increase in surface to volume ratio shows a gel collapse to provide transparent solid material. Gel formation of Gum Arabica was also studied with chromium and molybdenum oxide as cross-linking agent. The various studies carried out on the mentioned materials to investigate its structural and electrical characteristics are XRD, DSC, SEM and impedance spectroscopy. The said gel was found to provide a good electro-chemical cell with suitable redox pair.