On the Synthesis and Characterization of Silica-Doped/Sulfonated Poly-(2,6-Dimethyl-1,4-Phenylene Oxide) Composite Membranes for Fuel Cells

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Ebrasu ◽  
Irina Petreanu ◽  
Mihai Varlam ◽  
Dorin Schitea ◽  
Ioan Stefanescu ◽  
...  

The objective of this investigation is to study silica-doped/sulfonated poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPO) composite membranes for operation in hydrogen/oxygen proton-exchange membrane fuel cells ranging from room temperature (RT) up to 120 °C. The sulfonated PPO composite membranes were prepared using a sol–gel process employing reaction with tetra-ethoxysilane (TEOS) followed by heat treatment at 60, 90, and 120 °C, respectively. The presence of silicon oxide in the composite membranes was evaluated using FTIR spectroscopy, while thermal properties were studied using thermal gravimetric analysis-differential scanning calorimetric (TGA-DSC) measurements. Additionally, ion exchange capacity, water uptake, and proton conductivity characterizations were also carried out. It was observed that water uptake for 75% PPO sulfonated composite membrane treated at 120 °C is higher than that of NafionTM membrane and the proton conductivity value measured at 120  °C is 0.35·10−1 S/cm. Therefore, the composite membranes are potentially suitable for high temperature fuel cell applications.

e-Polymers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 430-442 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajdeep Mukherjee ◽  
Arun Kumar Mandal ◽  
Susanta Banerjee

AbstractSulfopropylated polysilsesquioxane and –COOH containing fluorinated sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) composite membranes (SPAES-SS-X) have been prepared via an in situ sol–gel reaction through the solution casting technique. The composite membranes showed excellent thermal and chemical stability, compared to the pristine SPAES membrane. The uniform dispersion of the sulfonated SiOPS nanoparticles on the polymer matrix was observed from the scanning electron microscope images. Atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy images indicated significantly better phase-separated morphology and connectivity of the ionic domains of the composite membranes than the pristine SPAES membrane. The composite membranes showed considerable improvement in proton conductivity and oxidative stability than the pristine copolymer membrane under similar test conditions.


2021 ◽  
pp. 095400832110394
Author(s):  
Yan Ma ◽  
Kaixu Ren ◽  
Ziqiu Zeng ◽  
Mengna Feng ◽  
Yumin Huang

To improve the performances of sulfonated poly (arylene ether nitrile) (SPEN)–based proton exchange membranes (PEMs) in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), the copper phthalocyanine grafted graphene oxide (CP-GO) was successfully prepared via in situ polymerization and subsequently incorporated into SPEN as filler to fabricate a series of SPEN/CP-GO-X (X represents for the mass ratio of CP-GO) composite membranes. The water absorption, swelling ratio, mechanical properties, proton conductivity, and methanol permeability of the membranes were systematically studied. CP-GO possesses good dispersion and compatibility with SPEN matrix, which is propitious to the formation of strong interfacial interactions with the SPEN, so as to provide more efficient transport channels for proton transfer in the composite membranes and significantly improve the proton conductivity of the membranes. Besides, the strong π–π conjugation interactions between CP-GO and SPEN matrix can make the composite membranes more compact, blocking the methanol transfer in the membranes, and significantly reducing the methanol permeability. Consequently, the SPEN/CP-GO-1 composite membrane displayed outstanding tensile strength (58 MPa at 100% RH and 25°C), excellent proton conductivity (0.178 S cm−1 at 60°C), and superior selectivity (5.552 × 105 S·cm−3·s). This study proposed a new method and strategy for the preparation of high performance PEMs.


2014 ◽  
Vol 577 ◽  
pp. 53-57
Author(s):  
Hang Wei ◽  
Guang Li

Sulfonated poly (arylene ether sulfone) s (SPAESs) exhibit good proton conductivity, thermal and mechanical properties, could act as candidates of proton exchange membranes for fuel cells. At the same time, the poor oxidative stability and excessive swelling ratio of SPAESs bring limitations for its further use. In this article, PAN was employed to mix with SPAES, and then SPAES/PAN blend membranes were prepared from the blend solution by casting. The water uptake, dimensional and oxidative stability, proton conductivity were measured with respect to the addition content of PAN, the phase morphology of the resultant SPAES/PAN were also observed by SEM. The results explained that the corporation of PAN into SPAES could reduce the water uptake and improve the oxidative stability of the obtained membranes compared with the pristine SPAES membrane. That the PAN phase distributed as separated domains in SPAES matrix was found, the interaction between SPAES and PAN may be present, which is responsible for the improvement of dimensional and oxidative stability. Although the proton conductivity of the blend membranes became reduced with increase of PAN content in the SPAES/PAN blend, the conductivity of 0.0265S/cm at 30°C could still be reached, satisfying the requirement for proton exchange membrane Fuel Cell


2011 ◽  
Vol 124 (4) ◽  
pp. 3511-3519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tongwen Xu ◽  
Dan Wu ◽  
Seok-Jun Seo ◽  
Jung-Je Woo ◽  
Liang Wu ◽  
...  

RSC Advances ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. 4934-4940 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xianlin Xu ◽  
Li Li ◽  
Hang Wang ◽  
Xiaojie Li ◽  
Xupin Zhuang

The incorporation of SPEEK nanofibers into a Nafion matrix enhanced the performance of the composite membrane as a proton exchange membrane.


Polymers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 1871 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ae Kim ◽  
Mohanraj Vinothkannan ◽  
Kyu Lee ◽  
Ji Chu ◽  
Sumg Ryu ◽  
...  

We designed and synthesized a series of sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) (SPES) with different hydrophilic or hydrophobic oligomer ratios using poly-condensation strategy. Afterward, we fabricated the corresponding membranes via a solution-casting approach. We verified the SPES membrane chemical structure using nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) and confirmed the resulting oligomer ratio. Field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM) results revealed that we effectively attained phase separation of the SPES membrane along with an increased hydrophilic oligomer ratio. Thermal stability, glass transition temperature (Tg) and membrane elongation increased with the ratio of hydrophilic oligomers. SPES membranes with higher hydrophilic oligomer ratios exhibited superior water uptake, ion-exchange capacity, contact angle and water sorption, while retaining reasonable swelling degree. The proton conductivity results showed that SPES containing higher amounts of hydrophilic oligomers provided a 74.7 mS cm−1 proton conductivity at 90 °C, which is better than other SPES membranes, but slightly lower than that of Nafion-117 membrane. When integrating SPES membranes with proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) at 60 °C and 80% relative humidity (RH), the PEMFC power density exhibited a similar increment-pattern like proton conductivity pattern.


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