Preparation of organic–inorganic nanocomposite membrane using a reactive polymeric dispersant and compatibilizer: Proton and methanol transport with respect to nano-phase separated structure

Sulfonated hydrocarbon membranes for medium-temperature and low-humidity proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs)

“…For example, the vinyl groups in PEO-PPO-based surfactants can be polymerized using 2,2 ′ -azxobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) initiator and produce IPN structures (red line). In addition, the hydroxyl groups in the surfactants can produce crosslinked structures through the formation of covalent bonds with other functional groups (e.g., -SO 3 H or -COOH) in the polymer matrices [226,235]. The resulting polymer-SiO 2 nanocomposites have exhibited excellent chemical durability and mechanical strength, as well as improved proton conductivity when compared to a corresponding pure copolymer due to the synergistic effect of well-dispersed SiO 2 and tuned polymer structures.…”

Fabrication of inorganic/polymer nanocomposite membranes containing very high silica content via in situ surface grafting reaction and reactive dispersion of silica nanoparticles: Proton conduction, water uptake, and oxidative stability

“…After adding UAN, transparency of the solution increased, indicating the increase of dispersibility of silica nanoparticles in DMSO solution. As reported at our previous papers, 13,14 UAN could increase dispersibility of silica nanoparticles in DMSO, so semitransparent silica/polymer nanocomposite membranes could be fabricated. TEM images of these membranes also showed unmodified silica nanoparticles could be dispersed with 50 nm-sized particles in the polymer membranes.…”

“…[4][5][6] In most of cases, inorganic oxides were incorporated into the polymer matrix using sol-gel process of inorganic precursors such as tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), titanium(IV)nbutoxide, zirconium n-butoxide, etc. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] At our preceding reports, 13,14 we presented fabrication of nanocomposite proton exchange membrane where silica nanoparticles were nanodispersed by aid of amphiphilic reactive dispersant, urethane acrylate nonionomer (UAN) which has polypropylene-based hydrophobic segment and polyethylene oxide-based hydrophilic segment at the same backbone and has reactive vinyl groups located at both ends of its polypropylene-based hydrophobic segment. UAN chains could not only increase dispersibility of silica nanoparticles but also be copolymerized with several monomers to form membranes having nanophase-separated structure.…”

“…Sulfonated polyimide and sulfonated poly(urethane acrylate-costyrene) membranes containing nanodispersed silica nanoparticles by aid of UAN chains exhibited improved hydrolytic and chemical stability and reduced methanol permeability. 13,14 Even though improved mechanical properties of the membranes could be achieved by incorporating 1-2 wt % of silica nanoparticles, the maximum amount of silica nanoparticles dispersed in the membranes using UAN was less than 3 wt %. In this study, we present a new fabrication process for inorganic/ organic nanocomposite membranes containing high silica nanoparticle content (higher than 5 wt %) for highly improving chemical and thermal stability of polymeric membranes.…”

Synthesis and Characterisation of Silica/Polyamide-Imide Composite Film for Enamel Wire

“…Various studies on the preparation of polymer/silica composite films have been conducted (Butterworth, 1995;Mosher, 2006;Kim, 2006;Ahn, 2006;Stathatos, 2004).…”