Polymer is an important constituent of polymer gel electrolytes along with salt and solvent. The salt provides ions for conduction and the solvent helps in the dissolution of the salt and also provides the medium for ion conduction. Although the polymer added provides mechanical stability to the electrolytes yet its effect on the conductivity behaviour of gel electrolytes as well as the interaction of polymer with salt and solvent has not been conclusively established. The conductivity of lithium ion conducting polymer gel electrolytes decreases with the addition of polymer whereas in the case of proton conducting polymer gel electrolytes an increase in conductivity has been observed with polymer addition. This has been explained to be due to the role of polymer in increasing viscosity and carrier concentration in these gel electrolytes.

Nonaqueous polymer gel electrolytes containing ammonium triflate (NH₄CF₃SO₃) and dimethylacetamide (DMA) with polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) as the gelling polymer have been synthesized which show high value of conductivity (∼ 10^-2 S/cm) at 25°C. The conductivity of polymer gel electrolytes containing different concentrations of NH₄CF₃SO₃ shows a small decrease with the addition of PMMA and this has been correlated with the variation of fluidity of these gel electrolytes. The small decrease in conductivity with PMMA addition shows that polymer plays the role of stiffener and this is supported by FTIR results which also indicates the absence of any active interaction between polymer and NH₄CF₃SO₃ in these gel electrolytes.

In the present study, microwave energy (2.45 GHz) has been used to prepare nickel oxide–yttria stabilized zirconia (NiO–YSZ) composites of composition, 𝑚NiO–(1 – 𝑚) Zr_0.9Y_0.1O_1.95 (𝑚 = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6), from a precursor obtained by mixing NiO, Y₂O₃ and monoclinic ZrO₂ in their stoichiometric ratio. The composites have been prepared by conventional processing also to compare the products with those of microwave processed products. During comparison, it was observed that NiO–YSZ composites of each composition obtained by microwave processing had cubic phase of YSZ while in the conventionally prepared composites of compositions, 𝑚 = 0.2 and 0.3, monoclinic, tetragonal and cubic phases of zirconia existed instead of its pure cubic phase. The composites were reduced to yield Ni–YSZ.

The effect of addition of single and binary additives on the performance of dye-sensitized TiO₂ solar cells based on electrolytes containing an ionic liquid (IL), 1,2-dimethyl-3-propylimidazolium iodide (DMPII) has been studied. Among the seven additives used, the addition of 2-(dimethylamino)-pyridine (DMAP) to IL resulted in best cell efficiency, which showed further enhancement with the addition of 5-chloro-1-ethyl-2-methylimidazole (CEMI) as second additive. The efficiency of the dye-sensitized solar cell (DSC) based on an electrolyte containing binary additives (DMAP and CEMI in equal molar ratios) has been found to increase by 62.5% from 4.35 to 7.07%. The dependence of different photovoltaic performance parameters (𝑉\_oc, 𝐽_sc, 𝑓𝑓 , 𝜂) of DSC upon temperature has been studied over a 30–120°C range and only a small decrease in conversion efficiency has been observed. The electrolyte containing binary additives (DMAP and CEMI) shows best cell performance up to 120°C.

The effect of addition of propylene carbonate (PC) and nano-sized fumed silica on the ionic conductivity behaviour of proton conducting polymer electrolytes containing different concentrations of hexafluorophosphoric acid (HPF₆) in polyethylene oxide (PEO) has been studied. The addition of PC results in an increase in ionic conductivity, whereas the addition of nano-sized fumed silica improves mechanical strength of electrolytes along with a small increase in ionic conductivity. It was observed that the simultaneous addition of PC and fumed silica results in electrolytes with optimum value of ionic conductivity and other properties.