Proton-conducting composite membranes derived from sulfonated hydrocarbon and inorganic materials

Impact of acid containing montmorillonite on the properties of Nafion® membranes

“…Recently, multi-layered alumino-silicates, mainly montmorillonite (MMT), have been used to improve the performances of Nafion ® [21][22][23][24][25] and SPEEK fuel cell membranes [26] with a special effort for decreasing the methanol permeability. Indeed, several studies showed that addition of this type of nanofiller is able to improve the barrier properties of several polymers towards various gases, as result of a high length-to-width ratio of the additive.…”

Mechanical Properties of Sulfonated Poly (Ether Ether Ketone) Nanocomposite Membranes

“…The absorption band at 704 cm -1 can be assigned to S-O stretching of sulfonic acid groups [20]. The new absorption bands at 1009, 1074 and 1258 cm -1 of SPEEK identify the symmetric and asymmetric stretching vibrations of the sulfonic acid group [13]. The aromatic C-C band at 1490 cm -1 for PEEK is observed to split into two peaks at 1476 and 1493 cm -1 for SPEEK, due to the new substitute from sulfonation [19].…”

“…A commercial surfactant, Plurinic ® L64 (PEO 13 -PPO 30 -PEO 13 , BASF, Ludwigshafen, Germany) was used as a dispersant to distribute nanoparticles. Nanoparticle of SiO 2 (Aerosil ® 200, surface area of 200 m 2 g -1 , average particle size 12 nm), TiO 2 (Aeroxide ® TiO 2 P25, Nippon Aerosil Co.Ltd., average particle size 21 nm) and WO 3 (Aldrich, average particle size <100 nm) were used as nanofillers.…”

“…the concentration of sulfonic groups. For example, the SPEEK is soluble in strong H 2 SO 4 , hot DMAc, and dimethyl sulfoxide if the DS is lower than 40%, soluble in the same solvent, even at room temperature if DS over 50% and soluble in methanol and has poor chemical stability in hot water when DS is higher than 70% [13]. Therefore, in this research, the SPEEK with 60% DS was then selected for further studies.…”

“…Several inorganic materials have been applied for this purpose such as montmorillonite [13], [14], silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide and zirconium oxide [4]. Preparation of such composite membrane systems may induce the enhancement of proton conductivity, reduction of methanol permeability and improvement of mechanical strength.…”