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Improved performance of sulfonated poly ether ether ketone/three-dimensional hierarchical molybdenum disulfide nanoflower composite proton exchange membrane for fuel cells

  • Polymers & biopolymers
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Abstract

As one of the most essential components of fuel cells, the commercialized Nafion-based proton exchange membranes(PEMs) suffer from several drawbacks like high cost and methanol permeability. The aim of this work is to fabricate a high performance PEM with combined low cost and methanol permeability together with high proton conductivity. Three-dimensional hierarchical molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) nanoflower is synthesized via a facile one-pot hydrothermal method, and then was embedd into sulfonated poly ether ether ketone (SPEEK) matrix to prepare composite PEM. The three-dimensional hierarchical architectures of MoS2 nanoflower can not only avoid the aggregation of MoS2 nanosheets but also provide abundant surface area and active sites, which are of benefit to fully take advantage of the intrinsic water absorption and methanol diffusion resistance ability of MoS2 nanosheets. The formed hydrogen bond network with water passway contributes to the improvement in proton conduction of composite membrane. As a consequence, composite membrane with 1 wt% MoS2 nanoflower loading content achieves optimized proton conductivity (0.123 S cm−1, 80 °C) and methanol permeability (21.5 × 10–7 cm2 s−1, 70 °C), which is 59.7% higher and 79.1% lower than that of SPEEK control membrane. Owing to increased proton conductivity and decreased methanol permeability, the maximum power density of the SPEEK/MoS2-1 composite membrane is 82.7 mW cm−2 at 70 °C, which is nearly 64.7% higher than that of pure SPEEK membrane (only 50.2 mW cm−2). Furthermore, the durability test confirms that the SPEEK/MoS2 composite membrane still possesses satisfactory stability even after continuous operation at 70 °C for 100 h.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the supports given by Science and Technology Research Project of Education Department of Hubei Province (No.Q20202704), Xiaogan Natural Science Program (No.XGKJ2019010056) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31701310). This work was also supported by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 2662020GXPY013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Hubei Engineering University, Xiaogan, 432000, People’s Republic of China

    Fei Zhong, Peng Xie, Ruyi Hou, Jinzhi Huang, Fuqiang Hu, Genwen Zheng, Hai Liu & Ting Qu

  2. Key Laboratory of Agricultural Equipment in Mid-Lower Yangtze River, Ministry of Agriculture, College of Engineering, Huazhong Agricultural University, No. 1, Shizishan Street, Hongshan District, Wuhan, 430070, Hubei, People’s Republic of China

    Wenjuan Niu

  3. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Yangtze Normal University, Chongqing, 408100, People’s Republic of China

    Yunhu Zhu

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  1. Fei Zhong
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Zhong, F., Xie, P., Hou, R. et al. Improved performance of sulfonated poly ether ether ketone/three-dimensional hierarchical molybdenum disulfide nanoflower composite proton exchange membrane for fuel cells. J Mater Sci 56, 6531–6548 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-020-05716-x

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