A Highly Selective Novel Green Cation Exchange Membrane Doped with Ceramic Nanotubes Material for Direct Methanol Fuel Cells

Herein, a pair of inexpensive and eco-friendly polymers were blended and formulated based on poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA). FTIR, XRD, EDX and TEM techniques were used to describe a Phosphated titanium oxide (PO4TiO2) nanotube synthesised using a straightforward impregnation-calcination procedure. For the first time, the produced nanoparticles were inserted as a doping agent into this polymeric matrix at a concentration of (1–3) wt.%. FTIR, TGA, DSC and XRD were used to identify the formed composite membranes. Furthermore, because there are more hydrogen bonds generated between the polymer’s functional groups and oxygen functional groups PO4TiO2, oxidative stability and tensile strength are improved with increasing doping addition and obtain better results than Nafion117. The permeability of methanol reduced as the weight % of PO4TiO2 increased. In addition, the ionic conductivity of the membrane with 3 wt.% PO4-TiO2 is raised to (28 mS cm−1). The optimised membrane (PVA/PEO/PO4TiO2-3) had a higher selectivity (6.66 × 105 S cm−3 s) than Nafion117 (0.24 × 105 S cm−3 s) and can be used as a proton exchange membrane in the development of green and low-cost DMFCs.

Piezoelectric PZT Semi-Ordered Nanotubes Arrays by Wetting of Porous Alumina Template

Piezoelectric nanotubes are applicable to many areas including sensors, actuators, and energy storage. Before these applications can be realized using nanoscale components, a study is needed to characterize the piezoelectric-properties of nanotube geometries versus the piezoelectric-properties of a thin-film of the same material (not shown here). The material used in this study is (PZT) lead-zirconate-titanate, PbZr0.5Ti0.48O3. In this work, 200nm diameter PZT structures are manufactured by a template wetting procedure. These ceramic nanotubes are brittle but hold up well inside the alumina template structure. Having an array of nanometer-sized piezoelectric-tubes has been hypothesized to give comparable results to that of thin-films of the same material. The research described in this paper is a preliminary step towards testing this hypothesis via characterization and later producing piezoelectric-nanoscale-sensors, which are both small and efficient.