Research Journal of Recent Sciences _________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502 Vol. 3(11), 50-56, November (2014) Res.J.Recent Sci. International Science Congress Association 50 Ionic Conductivity and Conduction Mechanism Studies of CMC/ Chitosan Biopolymer Blend Electrolytes Hafiza M.N. and Isa M.I.N.1,2* School of Fundamental Science, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu,Terengganu, MALAYSIA Center of Corporate Communication and Image Development, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu,Terengganu, MALAYSIA Available online at: www.isca.in , www.isca.me Received 15th April 2014, revised 22nd July 2014, accepted 30th September 2014Abstract The ionic conductivity of carboxymethyl cellulose/chitosan (CMC/CS) electrolyte containing various ammonium bromide (NHBr) compositions was prepared via solution cast method. The biopolymer blend electrolyte (BBE) films have been measured using Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy. The incorporation of 20 wt.% NHBr gives the optimum room temperature dc conductivity, dc of 2.12 x 10-5 Scm-1. Dielectric study shows dependence of BBE films on temperature, but independent to frequency. Based on the power law exponent result, CMC/CS-NHBr system can be represented by quantum mechanical tunnelling (QMT) model.Keywords: Carboxymethyl cellulose, chitosan, ammonium bromide, dielectric behavior, quantum mechanical tunneling (QMT) model, conduction mechanism. IntroductionGlobal climate change is a critical problem that everlasting and becomes a worrying environmental issue, which has resulted in actively work by public to minimize the current and upcoming environmental impact. The usage of ‘bio-derived’ materials in the polymer electrolyte (PE) system contributes to the white pollution and will directly bring toward green nation. Since Wright and Armand discovered ionic conductivity in a PEO/Nacomplex in 19752-3, there are a few numbers of natural polymer has been proposed by researchers as the application for the host polymer in the PE system, such aschitosan, -carrageenan, carboxymethylcellulose, and starch. When comparing the solid polymer electrolyte to gel and liquid type, solid polymer electrolyte possess some advantages such as leakage-free and also has a simple preparation8-9. But it main drawback such as low in conductivity value gives an obstacle for researchers to produce high quality polymer electrolyte with good ionic conductivity10, which then give a space for researchers to study and search on the best solution. There are many attempts has been made to enhance the conductivity of PE system, such as copolymerization11-12, plasticization, blending, reduction of crystallinity, addition of unusual or inorganic salts, varying the salts concentration and addition of ceramic filler/additives12. Blending technique was proposed in this work and it is believed could enhance the conductivity and improved structural stability of the electrolyte films13. From the polymerist point of view, polymer blend is a mixture or combination of at least two macromolecular substances, polymers and copolymers14-15. This blending technique uses low cost conventional processing technique and displays several advantages such as simplicity of preparation and ease in controlling the physical properties of the polymer16. There are many polymeric blend have been previously discovered such as poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC)/ poly(ethyl methacrylate) (PEMA)17-18, starch/ poly(ethylene oxide)(PEO)14, poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)/ poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP)19, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/ chitosan (CS)20, poly(ethyl methacrylate) (PEMA)/ poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVC)12, poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC)/ poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)21, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/ poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP)/ chitosan15, poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC)/ poly(vinylacetate) (PVAc)/ poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG)22. From the literatures, there is no report so far suggesting CMC and CS blend as natural polymer electrolyte film. In facts, organic polymer is usually known as insulator based in electronic component which gives the lowest ionic conductivity value (10-12-10-1823. With the blending technique applied to the system, it can enhance the conductivity value to the range of 10- Scm-1 though it is still cannot satisfy the conductivity required for electrolyte in battery system. However, with the incorporation of dopant it is believed could further increase the conductivity value. Most of the previous reports show that the conductivity increase after the addition of salts into the polymer host, for example, 10-6 Scm-1 for PVC/ PEO-KBr salt24, 10-7Scm-1 for PEO/PVP-NaBr salt19 and 10-6Scm-1 for CS/PVA-NHI salt25. Besides that, the investigation of conduction mechanism Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 3(11), 50-56, November (2014) Res.J.Recent Sci International Science Congress Association 51 involved in the system also becomes vital information in PE study in order to understand the conduction process of the blend polymer system. Various models have been proposed and explained by many researchers such quantum-mechanical tunnelling (QMT) model23,25-26, correlated barrier-hopping (CBH) model27-29, overlapping large polaron-tunnelling (OLPT) model30 and small polaron-hopping (SPH) model31. This paper reports the ionic conductivity and dielectric study for CMC/CS with various compositions of ammonium bromide (NHBr) and investigate the conduction mechanism involved in the system. Material and Methods Preparation of BBE film: The BBEs were prepared via solution cast method. The 2:1 ratio of natural polymer blend, CMC (Acros Organic Co.) and CS (W.A. Hammond Drierite Company LTD) were dissolved in 1% acetic acid solution. To this solution, 5-30 wt.% of ammonium bromide (NHBr) were added separately and stirred continuously until it is completely dissolved. The solutions were casted into different Petri dishes and dried in the oven at 60 C for the film formation. The yellow-ish BBE films were then kept in a desiccator for further drying to remove any traces of water before characterization process.Impedance spectroscopy: Impedance spectroscopy measurements were performed to determine the ionic conductivity of BBE films. A round shape of BBE films were cut into 2 cm diameter and sandwiched between two stainless steel electrodes. The BBE films were then characterized using electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) equipped with HIOKI 3532-50 LCR Hi-Tester in the frequency range of 50 Hz to 1 MHz. Dc conductivity, dcwas expressed by using equation 1.        (1) Where (cm) is the electrode-electrolyte contact area and is the thickness of the electrolyte. The bulk resistance, can be obtained from the plot of negative imaginary impedance, -Zversus real part of impedance, . Dielectric constant, and dielectric loss, were calculated using equation 2 and equation 3, respectively. \n \r    \n    \n      \r (2)  \r        \n      \r (3) Here, A/t and =2, where is the permittivity of free space.Based on Jonscher’s Universal Power Law (UPL), the total ac conductivity,) of biopolymer electrolyte is equal to the sum of dc conductivity, dc and ac conductivity, ac32.  \r        (4) Ac conductivity can be expressed using equation 5 and equation 6 as reported by Majid and Arof30 and Samsudin and Isa33.      (5)       (6) Consolidating equation 5 and equation 6 gives equation 7 and equation 8. \n     (7)         (8) By applying natural logarithm rule to equation 8, it gives           \r  (9) Here, is a parameter dependent on temperature and is the power law exponent in the range of 0 133. In ac conductivity study, plot of against was investigated to determine the conduction mechanism involved in the system25. The value of s can be calculated from the slope, m of lnagainstln , where m= s-33. Results and Discussion Dc conductivity study: Figure-1 shows the typical Cole-cole plot of BBE films with different NHBr compositions at 303 K. From the plots, two-well defined regions, namely a high frequency region semicircle arc and low frequency region inclination spike can be observed. In this present work, the semicircle represents the bulk effect of BBE which is due to the parallel combination of bulk resistance, (proton migration) and bulk capacitance, (immobile polymer chain)29,34-36. The inclination spike denotes the effect between two blocking electrodes which represent the formation of double layer capacitance of BBE film interface37. The value of can be retrieved from the interception between low-frequency and high-frequency region on -axis. It can be observed that the value of b decreased with the addition of NHBr composition up to 20 wt.%, and beyond that the b started to increase. With the decreasing in b value, the high semicircle arc seems to gradually faded away and completely disappeared at 20 wt.% of NHBr The depressed semicircles and inclines spikes (figure-1a, figure-1b and figure-1d) showed that the ions have different relaxation times and reveals non-Debye behaviour of the sample27,34. Incorporating with 20 wt.% of NHBr gives the highest dc conductivity, dc value of 2.12 x 10-5 Scm-1. The enhancement in dcvalue is Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 3(11), 50-56, November (2014) Res.J.Recent Sci International Science Congress Association 52 assumed due to the presence of ammonium salts (ionic dopant) in the system which was believed to be a good proton donor in a polymer matrix and expected to enhance in conductivity value 31,35. On the other hand, the low-frequency inclined spike at 20 wt.% of NHBr in the plot indicates that the system is dominated by the only resistive component as illustrated in figure-1c 27,33. Figure-1 The Cole-cole plots of the imaginary impedance, -Zi against real impedance, biopolymer blend electrolyte system for (a) BBE film, (b) BBE-10 wt.% NHBr, (c) BBE -20 wt.% NHBr and (d) BBE-30 wt.% NHBr, respectively at 303 K Figure-2 shows the NHBr composition dependence of dc conductivity, dc value of BBE film at selected temperatures. From the figure, the dc of 20 wt.% NHBr seems to increase from 2.12 x 10-5 Scm-1 to 1.61 x 10-4 Scm-1 at higher temperature. According to Rajendran and Bama38, the increasing in dc with the temperature is due to the increase in free volume which then allowed ion to move freely through the polymer backbones. Besides that, the increasing in dc can also be related to three phenomenons which are 1) ionic transport mechanism and its coordinating sites, 2) local structural relaxation and 3) segmental motion of BBE chains in free volume system39. As the temperature increases, the segmental motion of BBE chains have enough vibration energy to push against hydrostatic pressure exerted by its neighbouring atom and created a small amount of space surrounding for vibrational motion to occur in which causes augmentation in mobility ion, thus instantly boosted up the dc38-39. In BBE films, there are two different ionic mobile species involved in the system, which are cation (+ve) and anion (-ve). In this present work, it is believed that proton ion (cation) takes fully responsible for ionicconductivity of BBE films since Samsudin and Isa29 have reported that H is the predominant conducting species in ammonium salts. Dielectric study: The study of dielectric in polymer electrolyte brings a deep insight into the characteristic of ionic and molecular interaction23,40. In figure-3, it shows the NHBr compositions dependence of dielectric constant, at selected frequencies. From figure-3, found to increase by the addition of NHBr and reached maximum value at 20wt.% of NHBr and beyond that it is begin to decrease. The increasing of value together with the addition of NH4 Br composition is due to the increase in number density of store charge as a result of salt dissociation in the polymer matrix41. However, at above 20 wt.% of NHBr, the distance between ions become smaller and easy for ion to form neutral pair which then leads to the clustering ion. Thus, limit the mobility of ions in the system and instantly reduce in dc and also 6, 32. 1000002000003000000100000200000300000-Z(ohm) r (ohm)(a) 50001000015000050001000015000-Z(ohm) r (ohm)(c) 100002000030000400000200004000060000-Z(ohm)(ohm)(b) 50001000015000050001000015000-Z(ohm)(ohm)(d) Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 3(11), 50-56, November (2014) Res.J.Recent Sci International Science Congress Association 53 Figure-2 NHBr composition dependence of dc conductivity, dcBBE films at selected temperatures Figure-3 NHBr composition dependence of dielectric constant, at selected frequencies Figure-4 displays the temperature dependence of dielectric constant, for the highest dc conductivity, dc sample at selected frequency. Based on figure-4, the value of rise sharply at higher temperature, but it decreases with the increasing of frequency. As temperature increase, ions have sufficient energy to dissociate and produce higher mobile charge carrier in the system. Besides that, the degree of re-dissociation process of pairing or clustering ion can also be improved by heating up the samples, hence increase the concentration of free charge carriers which are favourable for transportation42. Furthermore, the value of as depicted in figure-4 also found closed to zero at 100 kHz. At this frequency, r tends to be temperature independent. This can be attributed to the electrode polarization effect at the optimum degree of dissociation40. Figure-4 Temperature dependence of dielectric constant, for BBE -20 wt.% NHBr film at selected frequencies Acconductivity study: Ac conductivity: Ac conductivity measurement of BBE system was performed to investigate the conductionmechanism43. Figure-5 represents the frequency dependence of dielectric loss for the highest conductivity sample (20 wt.% of NHBr) at selected temperature in the higher frequency region. Based on the figure, the value of exponent can be obtained from the slope of ln against ln , where there is assign no or minimal space charge polarization occur at this acceptable frequency range of 12.0ln 14.025. According to Buraidah et al.25, the reduction of electrodes polarization nearest to zero in higher frequency region is due to the shorter period taken for the direction of electric field to change at faster rate. Figure-5 Ln against ln at selected temperature for BBE-20 wt.% NHBr film 1.00E-081.00E-071.00E-061.00E-051.00E-041.00E-0305101520253035 303K 313K 323K 333K NH 4 Br composition (wt.%) Dc conductivity, dc (Scm-1) 1.00E-081.00E-071.00E-061.00E-051.00E-041.00E-0305101520253035 303K 313K 323K 333K NH 4 Br composition (wt.%) Dc conductivity, dc (Scm-1) 0.0E+001.0E+022.0E+023.0E+024.0E+025.0E+026.0E+027.0E+02300320340360380 2kHz Temperature, T (K)  r (  ) 0.01.02.03.04.05.06.07.012.212.613.013.413.814.2 303K 313K 323K 333K 343K 353K ln  (Hz) ln  i Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 3(11), 50-56, November (2014) Res.J.Recent Sci International Science Congress Association 54 The plot of against is shown in figure-6. From the plot, it directly evidenced that BBE system follows quantum mechanical tunnelling (QMT) model, in which the exponent is temperature independent and nearly consistent as the temperature increase23, 26. Shukur et al.26 stated that the ionic hopping between two sites is not only occurs by jumping over a barrier, but can also accompanied by QMT. In this work, the plot of against can be fitted to the equation s = 0.0001 + 0.1106. From this fitting equation, a small gradient values of s almost independent to temperature and tend to go constantly with temperature. Thus, it indicates that the ionic conduction of BBE system is accompanied by QMT model as similar reported for other polymer-salt systems23,26,32. In this quantum mechanical phenomenon, the polaron which is made up of conducting proton together with their stress fields, are attempting to travel and tunnels through the potential barrier that exist between two possible complexation sites with the addition of NHBr in the present BBE system23, 30Figure-6 Plot of exponent against for BBE-20 wt.% NHBr film Conclusion A yellow-ish transparent CMC/CS-NHBr BBE films were successfully prepared using solution casting technique. Dc conductivity for the highest BBE film of 2.12 x 10-5 Scm-1containing 20 wt.% NHBr was obtained at room temperature, and gradually increases with temperatures. From dielectric analysis, was observed to increase with the increasing inNHBr composition. This is due to the increase in charge density which provides more space for ion mobility. The also found to increase with temperature but decrease with the frequency. As temperature increase, pairing ions gain enough energy to break away from its coordination thus formed free charge ions for transportation. The conduction mechanism studies showed that the BBE film for 20 wt.% NHBr was accompanied by quantum mechanical tunnelling (QMT) model in which the value of is independent to temperature. Acknowledgement The authors would like to acknowledge Ministry of Education Malaysia (MOHE) for the Exploratory Research Grant Scheme (ERGS) Vot.55101, MyBrain 15 for My PhD and Advanced Materials Team for the support given in completing this project. References 1.Rasool F.K. and Samaneh P., Photovoltaic device modeling and effect of its parameters, Res. J. Recent Sci.,2(4), 59–64 (2013)2.Woo H.J., MajidS.R. and Arof A.K., Conduction and thermal properties of a proton conducting polymer electrolyte based on poly (-caprolactone), Solid State Ionic, 199-200, 14-20 (2011)3.Chai M.N. and Isa M.I.N., Carboxyl methylcellulose solid polymer electrolytes: Ionic conductivity and dielectric study, Journal of Current Engineering Research, 1(2), 23-27 (2011)4.Aziz S.B., Abidin Z.H.Z. and Arof A.K., Effect of silver nanoparticles on the dc conductivity in chitosan–silver triflate polymer electrolyte, Physica B, 405(21), 4429–4433 (2010)5.Mobarak N.N., Ramli N., Ahmad A. and Rahman M.Y.A., Chemical interaction and conductivity of carboxymethyl -carrageenan based green polymer electrolyte, Solid State Ionics, 224, 51–57 (2012)6.Samsudin A.S. and Isa M.I.N., New types of biopolymer electrolytes: Ionic conductivity study on CMC doped with NH4Br, Journal of Current Engineering Research, , 7-11 (2011) 7.Ahmad Khiar A.S. and Arof A.K., Conductivity studies of starch-based polymer electrolytes, Ionics, 16, 123-129 (2010)8.Sit Y.K., Samsudin A.S. and Isa M.I.N., Ionic conductivity study on hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) doped with NHBr based biopolymer electrolytes, Res. J. Recent Sci., 1(11), 16-21 (2012)9.Hafiza M.N., Bashirah A.N.A., Bakar N.Y. and Isa M.I.N., Electrical properties of carboxyl methylcellulose/chitosan dual-blend green polymer doped with ammonium bromide, Int. J. Polym. Anal. Ch., 19, 151-158 (2014)10.Ramesh S. and Chai M.F., Conductivity, dielectric behavior and FTIR studies of high molecular weight poly(vinylchloride)-lithium triflate polymer electrolytes, Mat. Sci. Eng. B-Solid., 139, 240-245 (2007)11.Oza R. and Patel S., Recovery of nickel from spent Ni/Alcatalysts using acid leaching, chelation and ultrasonication, Res. J. Recent Sci., 1 (ISC-2011), 434–443 (2012) = 0.0001+ 0.11060.20.40.60.8300320340360380Temperature,(K) Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 3(11), 50-56, November (2014) Res.J.Recent Sci International Science Congress Association 55 12.Rama Mohan K., Achari V.B.S., Rao V.V.R.N. and Sharma A.K., Electrical and optical properties of (PEMA/PVC) polymer blend electrolyte doped with NaClO, Polym. Test., 30, 881-886 (2011)13.Zakaria N.A., Isa M.I.N., Mohamed N.S. and Subban R.H.Y., Characterization of polyvinyl chloride/ polyethyl methacrylate polymer blend for use as polymer host in polymer electrolytes, J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 126, E419-E424 (2012)14.Ramly K., Isa M.I.N. and Khiar A.S.A., Conductivity and dielectric behaviour studies of starch/PEO+x wt-%NHNO polymer electrolyte, Mater. Res. Innov., 15, S2-82 (2011)15.Mudigoudra B.S., Masti S.P. and Chougale R.B., Thermal behavior of poly (vinyl alcohol)/ poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) / chitosan ternary polymer blend films, Res. J. Recent Sci., 1(9), 83–86 (2012)16.Kadir M.F.Z., Majid S.R. and Arof A.K., Plasticized chitosan–PVA blend polymer electrolyte based proton battery, Electrochim. Acta, 55, 1475-1482 (2010)17.Zakaria N.A, Yahya S.Y.S., Isa M.I.N., Mohamed N.S. and Subban R.H.Y., Conductivity and dynamic mechanical studies of PVC / PEMA blend polymer electrolytes, Adv. Mat. Res., 93-94, 429-432 (2010)18.Ahmed M.T. and Fahmy T., Distributed relaxations in PVC/PEMA polymer blends as revealed by thermostimulated depolarization current, Polym. Test., 18, 589-599 (1999)19.Kiran Kumar K., Ravi M., Pavani Y., Bhavani S., Sharma A.K. and Rao V.V.R.N., Investigations on PEO/PVP/NaBr complexed polymer blend electrolytes for electrochemical cell applications, J. Membrane Sci., 454, 200-211 (2014)20.Kadir M.F.Z., Aspanut Z., Majid S.R. and Arof A.K., FTIR studies of plasticized poly(vinyl alcohol)-chitosan blend doped with NHNO polymer electrolyte membrane, Spectrochim. Acta A, 78, 1068-1074 (2011)21.Aouachria K. and Belhaneche-Bensemra N., Miscibility of PVC/PMMA blends by vicat softening temperature, viscometry, DSC and FTIR analysis, Polym. Test., 25(8), 1101-1108 (2006)22.Mudigoudra B.S., Masti S.P. and Chougale R.B., Investigation of mechanical properties of ternary polymer PVC / PVAc / PEG blended films, Res. J. Recent Sci., 1(2), 63–65 (2012)23.Isa M.I.N. and Samsudin A.S., Ionic conduction behavior of CMC based green polymer electrolytes, Adv. Mat. Res., 802, 194-198 (2013)24.Reddeppa N., Sharma A.K., Rao V.V.R.N and Wen Chen, Preparation and characterization of pure and KBr doped polymer blend (PVC/PEO) electrolyte thin films, Microelectron. Eng.,112,57-62 (2013)25.Buraidah M.H., Teo L.P., Majid S.R. and Arof A.K., Ionic conductivity by correlated barrier hopping in NHI doped chitosan solid electrolyte, Physica B, 404, 1373-1379 (2009)26.Shukur M.F., Ibrahim F.M., Majid N.A., Ithnin R. and Kadir M.F.Z., Electrical analysis of amorphous corn starch-based polymer electrolyte membranes doped with LiI, Phys. Scripta, 88, 1-9 (2013)27.Afifi M.A., Bekheet A.E., Abd El-wahabb E. and Atyia H.E., Ac conductivity and dielectric properties of amorphous InSe3 films, Vacuum, 61(1), 9-17 (2001)28.Hegab N.A., Afifi M.A., Atyia H.E. and Farid A.S., Ac conductivity and dielectric properties of amorphous Se0Te0-Gechalcogenide glass film compositions, J. Alloy. Compd., 477, 925-930 (2009)29.Bekheet A.E., Ac conductivity and dielectric properties of Ga–GaSe films, Physica B, 403, 4342–4346 (2008)30.Majid S.R. and Arof A.K., Electrical behavior of proton-conducting chitosan-phosphoric acid-based electrolytes, Physica B, 390, 209–215 (2007)31.Chai M.N. and Isa M.I.N., Investigation on the conduction mechanism of carboxyl methylcellulose-oliec acid natural solid polymer electrolyte. InternationalJournal of Advanced Technology & Engineering Research, 2(6), 36-39 (2012)32.Buraidah M.H. and Arof A.K., Characterization of chitosan/PVA blended electrolyte doped with NHI, J. Non-Cryst. Solids, 357, 3261-3266 (2011)33.Samsudin A.S. and Isa M.I.N., Structural and ionic transport study on CMC doped NHBr: a new types of biopolymer electrolytes, J. Appl. Sci., 12(2), 174-179 (2012)34.Baskaran R., Selvasekarapandian S., Hirankumar G. and Bhuvaneswari M., Vibrational, ac impedance and dielectric spectroscopic studies of poly(vinylacetate)–N,N–dimethylformamide–LiClO polymer gel electrolytes, J. Power Sources, 134, 235-240 (2004)35.Kamarudin K.H. and Isa M.I.N., Structural and dcionic conductivity studies of carboxy methylcellulose doped with ammonium nitrate as solid polymer electrolytes, Int. J. Phys. Sci., 8(31), 1581-1587 (2013)36.Ramya C.S., Selvasekarapandian S., Savitha T., Hirankumar G., Baskaran R., Bhuvaneswari M.S., Angelo P.C., Conductivity and thermal behavior of proton conducting polymer electrolyte based on poly (N-vinyl pyrrolidone), Eur. Polym. J., 42, 2672-2677 (2006)37.Kiran Kumar K., Ravi M., Pavani Y., Bhavani S., Sharma A.K. and RaoV.V.R.N., Investigations on the Research Journal of Recent Sciences _____________________________________________________________ ISSN 2277-2502Vol. 3(11), 50-56, November (2014) Res.J.Recent Sci International Science Congress Association 56 effect of complexation of NaF salt with polymer blend (PEO/PVP) electrolytes on ionic conductivity and optical energy band gaps, Physica B, 406, 1706-1712 (2011)38.Rajendran S. and Bama V.S., A study on the effect of various plasticizers in poly(vinyl acetate)-poly(methyl methacrylate) based gel electrolytes, J. Non-Cryst. Solids, 356, 2764-2768 (2010) 39.Reddeppa N., Sharma A.K., Rao V.V.R.N. and ChenW., Ac conduction mechanism and battery discharge characteristics of (PVC/PEO) polyblend films complexed with potassium chloride, Measurement, 47, 33-41 (2014)40.Samsudin A.S., Khairul W.M. and Isa M.I.N., Characterization on the potential of carboxy methylcellulose for application as proton conducting biopolymer electrolytes, J. Non-Cryst. Solids, 358, 1104-1112 (2012)41.Singh K.P. and Gupta P.N., Study of dielectric relaxation in polymer electrolytes, Eur. Polym. J., 34(7), 1023-1029 (1998)42.Samsudin A.S. and Isa M.I.N., Structural and electrical properties of carboxy methylcellulose-dodecyltrimethyl ammonium bromide-based biopolymer electrolytes system, Int. J. Polymer. Mater., 61(1), 30-40(2012) 43.Ramesh S., Liew C.W. and Arof A.K., Ion conducting corn starch biopolymer electrolytes doped with ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazoliumhexafluorophosphate, J. Non-Cryst. Solids, 357, 3654-3660 (2011)