Journal
POLYMERS FOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES
Volume 26, Issue 5, Pages 457-464Publisher
WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/pat.3473
Keywords
sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone); proton exchange membranes; functionalized carbon nanotubes; methanol permeability; fuel cells
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Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [51303048, 51403058]
- Hubei Provincial Department of Education [T201216]
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The major risk of using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to modify proton exchange membranes (PEMs) in fuel cells is possible short-circuiting due to the excellent electrical conductivity of CNTs. In this article, silica-coated CNTs (SiO2@CNTs) were successfully prepared by a simple sol-gel process and then used as a new additive in the preparation of sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone) (SPEEK)-based composite membranes. The insulated and hydrophilic silica coated on the surface of CNTs not only eliminated the risk of short-circuiting, but also enhanced the interfacial interaction between CNTs and SPEEK, and hence promoted the homogeneous dispersion of CNTs in the SPEEK matrix. Moreover, compared to the methanol permeability of the pure SPEEK membrane (3.42x10(-7)cm(2)s(-1)), the SPEEK/SiO2@CNT composite membrane with a SiO2@CNT loading of 5wt% exhibits almost one order of magnitude decrease of methanol crossover, while the proton conductivity still remained above 10(-2)Scm(-1) at room temperature. The obtained results expose the possibility of SPEEK/SiO2@CNT membranes to be served as high-performance PEMs in direct methanol fuel cells. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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