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SGO/SPEN-based highly selective polymer electrolyte membranes for direct methanol fuel cells

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Abstract

In this study, proton-exchange membranes (PEMs) consisting of sulfonated poly(arylene ether nitrile) (SPEN) have been successfully prepared by incorporating a different amount of sulfonated graphene oxide (SGO). Incorporation of SGO can improve proton conductivity and reduce the methanol permeability. Besides, the existence of the intermolecular interactions between SPEN and SGO can improve the interfacial compatibility between filler and matrix. The resulting composite membranes show better mechanical property, proton conductivity and lower methanol permeability compared to that of pure SPEN. Furthermore, the composite membrane with 1 wt% SGO possesses good interfacial compatibility, exhibiting excellent proton conductivity (0.109 S/cm at 20 °C and 0.265 S/cm at 80 °C) and low methanol permeability (0.17×10−6 cm2·s−1 at 20 °C). So it achieves the highest selectivity (6.412×105 S·s·cm−3), which is about 14 times higher than that of Nafion 117. All these data indicate that the SPEN/SGO composite membranes have good potential for applications in direct methanol fuel cells.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank for financial support of this work from the National Natural Science Foundation (Nos. 51373028) and University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (A03013023601011).

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  1. Research Branch of Advanced Functional Materials, School of Microelectronic and Solid-State Electronic, High Temperature Resistant Polymers and Composites Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, China

    Tao Cheng, Mengna Feng, Yumin Huang & Xiaobo Liu

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  1. Tao Cheng
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  2. Mengna Feng
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  3. Yumin Huang
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Correspondence to Yumin Huang or Xiaobo Liu.

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Cheng, T., Feng, M., Huang, Y. et al. SGO/SPEN-based highly selective polymer electrolyte membranes for direct methanol fuel cells. Ionics 23, 2143–2152 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-017-2057-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-017-2057-2

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