Statistical analysis on conductivity of MC-KOH-PEG membrane using central composite design

Direct Ethanol Fuel Cells (DEFCs) structures compose membrane that separate anode and cathode. Membrane is vital structure, that play an essential role in facilitating electrochemical reaction. The crucial characteristics of an excellent membrane to be applied in DEFCs should posses high ionic conductivity. However, current membrane in DEFCS relatively has lower ionic conductivity with a high price. Membrane conductivity is obtained from the measurement of resistivity of the proton-conductive membrane against the flow of current. Ionic conductivity measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) using electrochemical system. In this study, the Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM) using Methyllcellulose as host was fabricated using simple casting solution technique with KOH as doping salt and Polyetylene glycol as plasticizer. The effects of weight variations of KOH and Polyethylene glycol (PEG) were investigated on conductivity measurements of membrane. The optimal ratio of AEM using MC, KOH and PEG was performed via Central Composite Design (CCD) experiment. Based on the hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis (HACA) approach, the results are grouped into their own clusters which shows the most reliable results. The optimum weight of plasticizers recorded is 1.5 g, 0.55 g, and 1.0 g for MC, KOH and PEG respectively yield the maximum conductivity which is 0.00025305 S/m. In summary, the findings of proper ratio weight of each compound are crucial to enhance the conductivity value.