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Proton conductivity and structural properties of precursors mixed PVA/PWA-based hybrid composite membranes

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Abstract

A new class of hybrid nanocomposite membranes containing poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), phosphotungstic acid (PWA), 3-glycidyloxypropyltrimethoxysilane (GPTMS), 3-mercaptopropyltrimethoxysilane (MPTMS) and glutaraldehyde (GA) were prepared by a sol–gel method. The aim of this research study was to investigate these novel and highly proton-conducting membranes including their properties, and performances for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) operating at low temperature. 'Swelling' was observed at room temperature for all the composites. The manner in which the conductivity depended on temperature and humidity was determined and a maximum conductivity value of 2.5 × 10−2 S cm−1 was found at a 140°C and 30 % relative humidity (RH) for the PVA/PWA/GPTMS/MPTMS/P2O5/GA (50/5/15/10/10/10 wt.%) hybrid composite membrane. It was suggested that the conductivity depended strongly on the nature of the organic/inorganic components as well as on the acid concentration. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results demonstrated that this membrane had an amorphous phase, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) results confirmed the composite formation. Finally, membrane-electrode assemblies with a loading of 0.1 mg cm−2 of Pt/C on a prepared electrode gave rise to a current density of 309 mA cm−2 at 0.5 V.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Ministry of Education, Sport, Culture, Science and Technology (MEXT) and the Special Coordination Funds for Promoting Sciences and Technology of Japan. Special thanks go to Prof. Kishimoto, Graduate School of Natural Science of Technology and Prof. Kimura, Graduate School of Environmental Science, Okayama University, Japan; they permitted to use their lab equipments for my research work. Many thanks go to Mr. A. Suresh Kumar, RCIS, and Okayama University for his help with the XRD, FTIR and TG/DTA experiments. The author thanks Assist Prof. Y. Nishina, RCIS, Okayama University, for help with the Chemdraw software in Fig. 1.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Core for Interdisciplinary Science (RCIS), Okayama University, Tsushima-Naka, Kita-Ku, Okayama, 700-8530, Japan

    Uma Thanganathan

  2. Department of Material Science and Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Showa, Nagoya, 466-8555, Japan

    Masayuki Nogami

Authors
  1. Uma Thanganathan
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  2. Masayuki Nogami
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Correspondence to Uma Thanganathan.

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Thanganathan, U., Nogami, M. Proton conductivity and structural properties of precursors mixed PVA/PWA-based hybrid composite membranes. J Solid State Electrochem 18, 97–104 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-013-2235-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10008-013-2235-8

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