Development of Poly(Vinyl Alcohol)-Based Polymers as Proton Exchange Membranes and Challenges in Fuel Cell Application: A Review

The direct borohydride fuel cell (DBFC) is a low-temperature fuel cell that requires the development of affordable price and efficient proton exchange membranes for commercial purposes. In this context, super-acidic sulfated zirconia (SO4ZrO2) was embedded into a cheap and environmentally friendly binary polymer blend, developed from poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and iota carrageenan (IC). The percentage of SO4ZrO2 ranged between 1 and 7.5 wt.% in the polymeric matrix. The study findings revealed that the composite membranes’ physicochemical features improved by adding increasing amounts of SO4ZrO2. In addition, there was a decrease in the permeability and swelling ratio of the borohydride membranes as the SO4ZrO2 weight% increased. Interestingly, the power density increased to 76 mW cm−2 at 150 mA cm−2, with 7.5 wt.% SO4ZrO2, which is very close to that of Nafion117 (91 mW cm−2). This apparent selectivity, combined with the low cost of the eco-friendly fabricated membranes, points out that DBFC has promising future applications.

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Preparation of organic–inorganic nanocomposite membranes as proton exchange membranes for direct dimethyl ether fuel cell application

Desalination ◽

10.1016/j.desal.2006.03.444 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 200 (1-3) ◽

pp. 584-585 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Seung-Eun Nam ◽

Sun-A Song ◽

Sang-Gyun Kim ◽

Sun-Mi Park ◽

Yongku Kang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Fuel Cell ◽

Dimethyl Ether ◽

Proton Exchange Membranes ◽

Proton Exchange ◽

Nanocomposite Membranes ◽

Fuel Cell Application

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Cellulose Nanocrystals Incorporated Proton Exchange Membranes for Fuel Cell Application

Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Advances in Energy Research - Springer Proceedings in Energy ◽

10.1007/978-981-15-5955-6_109 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1145-1153

Author(s):

Saleheen Bano ◽

Asif Ali ◽

Sauraj ◽

Yuvraj Singh Negi

Keyword(s):

Fuel Cell ◽

Cellulose Nanocrystals ◽

Proton Exchange Membranes ◽

Proton Exchange ◽

Fuel Cell Application

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Sulfonated poly (arylene ether sulfone)-graft-sulfonated poly (vinyl alcohol) proton exchange membranes: Improved proton selectivity

High Performance Polymers ◽

10.1177/0954008320968164 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 095400832096816

Author(s):

Hailin Yu ◽

Yinghan Wang

Keyword(s):

Vinyl Alcohol ◽

Substitution Reaction ◽

Proton Exchange Membranes ◽

Proton Exchange ◽

Methanol Permeability ◽

Poly Vinyl Alcohol ◽

H Nmr ◽

Arylene Ether ◽

High Proton ◽

Sulfonated Poly

Aldehyde terminated sulfonated poly (arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES-CHO) is prepared by a series of nucleophilic substitution reaction based on SPAES in this paper. Novel SPAES-graft-SPVA (SPAES-g-SPVA) membranes are fabricated by acetal reaction between SPAES-CHO and different amounts of sulfonated poly (vinyl alcohol) (SPVA). The 1H-NMR and FTIR indicate the successful preparation of SPAES-CHO and SPAES-g-SPVA membranes. With the introduction of SPVA, the SPAES-g-SPVA membranes have much lower methanol permeability than pure SPAES membrane and Nafion117 membrane. The methanol permeability coefficients of the SPAES-g-SPVA membranes decrease from 3.41 × 10−7 cm2 s−1 to 1.67 × 10−7 cm2 s−1 with the increase of SPVA content. And the proton conductivity of all the membranes is higher than 15 mS cm−1 at 25°C. Moreover, SPAES-g-SPVA membranes exhibit high proton selectivity. Especially, SPAES-g-SPVA-30% membrane has the highest proton selectivity, which is nearly five times higher than Nafion117.

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