Synthesis and Characterization of Sulfonated Graphene Oxide Nanofiller for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane

In this study, sulfonated graphene oxide (SGO) nanocomposite were produced as potential nanofiller to improve the properties of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) for fuel cell applications. The GO is produced by modified Hummers's method and the as-synthesized GO was used to prepare SGO with three distinctive precursors, namely 3-mercaptomethoxysilane (MPTMS), sulfanilic acid (SA) and butane sultone (BS). The SGO samples were characterized with several physical characterization techniques (XRD, FTIR, SEM-EDX and XPS) to provide the insights into the morphology; the state of homogenization; the crystallography and the functional groups. The experimental result indicated that the sulfonic acid group has been successfully incorporated with GO and can be used as filler in PEM.