Journal
JOURNAL OF MATERIALS CHEMISTRY
Volume 22, Issue 12, Pages 5810-5819Publisher
ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/c2jm14838b
Keywords
-
Funding
- Curtin Research Fellow program
- Curtin University
- Australia Research Council, Australia [DP120104932]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Ordered mesoporous structures were successfully introduced into Nafion membranes via a soft micelle templating method, using a non-ionic block copolymer surfactant, PEO127-PPO48-PEO127 (Pluronic F108). Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) analysis show the typical features of the formation of ordered mesopores in the as-prepared Nafion membranes. TGA and FTIR results show that the mesoporous Nafion (meso-Nafion) has a much higher water retention capability as compared to conventional Nafion membranes. The proton conductivities of meso-Nafion are much higher than those of Nafion 115 membranes especially at reduced relative humidity (RH) and elevated temperatures. The results show that the conductivity and water retention ability are sensitive to the surfactant loading. At 80 degrees C and 40% RH, the conductivity of the best meso-Nafion membrane is 0.07 S cm(-1), 5 times better than 0.013 S cm(-1) obtained on Nafion 115. At 60% RH and 80 degrees C, the cell with meso-Nafion reached a stable power output of 0.63Wcm(-2), more than 2 times higher than the cell with pristine Nafion 115 under identical experimental conditions. When the RH reduced to 20%, the power output of meso-Nafion membranes is 5.6 times higher than that of Nafion 115. The cells with meso-Nafion membranes also demonstrate much better power output at elevated temperature of 120 degrees C and reduced humidity.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available