Synthesis and Characterization of Nanocomposite Membrane Based on Sulfonated PEEK and TPA/MMT for PEMFC

چکیده مقاله

Dwindling fossil fuel reserves and growing environmental concerns have lead to the search for various alternative energy sources. Fuel cells have been promoted as the next technological leap in the area of power production. Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) technology is on the forefront of commercialization efforts in comparison with other fuel cell technologies. In the present study, the nanocomposite membrane of sulfonated polyetheretherketone / Tungstophosphoric acid-Montmorilonite (sPEEK/TPA-MMT) is proposed for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). The nanocomposite powders were characterized by XRD and SEM reveal that TPA will interact well with MMT and it was found that the TPA possessed good adhesion with MMT. The sPEEK modified membrane with TPA/MMT was synthesized and its performance was compared to pristine sPEEK and Nafion 117 membranes. Water uptake and ion exchange capacity of nanocomposite membrane were obtained 49% and 3 meq./gr., which were higher than pristine sP65 (30% and 1.82 meq./gr.) , respectively. Proton conductivity was investigated in the temperature range of the 25-80 °C and 95% relative humidity. The highest proton conductivity was observed for nanocomposite membrane at 80 °C (i.e. 0.1015 S/cm). was observed. Methanol permeability for nanocomposite membrane at 70 °C is less than sPEEK.