Deposition of polypyrrole on microporous filtration membranes at air/water interface

Abstract

Microfiltration membranes were utilized as a template for the preparation of polypyrrole films at the air/water interface. Unlike the formation of polypyrrole tubules (or fibrils) when the membranes are soaked in polymerization media, chemical polymerization on the membrane at the interface resulted in the film formation on the membrane surface in contact with polymerization media, without remaining open micropores. Investigations of electrochemical responses with anthraquinone-2-sulfonate and Fe(CN) 6 4Ϫ on fully reduced or oxidized polypyrrole as well as studies of conductivity changes with polypyrrole deposition were carried out to confirm this behavior. Complete coverage of one side of a microfiltration membrane with a polypyrrole layer, remaining micropore walls, and the other side of a membrane intact, could be useful in various applications because it allows further electrochemical treatment/ measurements utilizing these open micropores straightforward.

Preparation of a Novel Composite Material Based on a Nafion® Membrane and Polypyrrole for Potential Application in a PEM Fuel Cell

“…A typical polymerisation procedure follows the scenario of membrane equilibration with the monomer and its subsequent plunging into the oxidant solution [18,19,23,29]. The inverse method (equilibration with the oxidant and plunging into the monomer solution) has also been proposed [21,22,25,26].…”

“…It is thought that the modification of an ion selective polymer with a second polymer characterised by a rigid structure may help to increase the selectivity of the membrane to the required ions, while at the same time maintaining reasonably high permeability. A small group of studies has declared its interest in the production of a new type of separation membrane [23,24], a slightly larger group in the preparation of a new type of functionalised materials [25][26][27][28][29]. Recently, a study was published on the preparation and characterisation of a Nafion/PPy composite for application in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC), especially with respect to its permeability for methanol [30].…”

“…Therefore it is of interest to verify the possibility of an alternative method of CP embedding on the membrane surface. As follows from the literature data, synthesis directly on the membrane surface is a promising method [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. These studies were motivated by various interests.…”

“…Recently, a study was published on the preparation and characterisation of a Nafion/PPy composite for application in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC), especially with respect to its permeability for methanol [30]. A typical oxidant used for chemical polymerisation is FeCl 3 [18,[20][21][22][23][24][25][26]29] or Fe(NO 3 ) 3 [30]. Only in rare cases were Na 2 S 2 O 8 [18,19,27] or H 2 O 2 [30] used.…”

Modification and Characterization of a Novel Composite Material Based on a Nafion Membrane and Polypyrrole

“…A typical polymerization procedure reported in the literature follows the scenario of ion-selective membrane equilibration with the monomer and its subsequent plunging into an oxidant solution. [4][5][6][7][8][9] The inverse way ͑equilibration with an oxidant and plunging into a monomer solution͒ has also often been proposed. [10][11][12][13] Ermolaev et al, 14 Hsu, 15 and Park et al 16 are the exception.…”