Journal
POLYMERS FOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES
Volume 18, Issue 7, Pages 535-543Publisher
JOHN WILEY & SONS LTD
DOI: 10.1002/pat.913
Keywords
poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA); sulfonated polyhedral oligosilsesquioxane (sPOSS); membrane; direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC)
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Funding
- National Research Foundation of Korea [과C6A2605] Funding Source: Korea Institute of Science & Technology Information (KISTI), National Science & Technology Information Service (NTIS)
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Organic/inorganic hybrid membranes based on poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and sulfonated polyhedral oligosilsesquioxane (sPOSS), crosslinked by ethylenediaminetetraacetic dianhydride (EDTAD), were prepared as candidate materials for proton exchange membranes in direct methanel fuel cell (DMFC) applications. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy and ion exchange capacity measurements for the prepared networks clearly revealed sPOSS incorporation. We found that proton conductivity increased and methanol permeability decreased with increasing sPOSS content in the hybrid membrane. In particular, our hybrid membranes demonstrated proton conductivities as high as 0.042 S/cm, which is comparable to that of Nafion (TM), while exhibiting two orders of magnitude lower methanol permeability as compared to Nafion (TM). We postulate that the polar sulfonic acid groups of the incorporated sPOSS cages assemble to provide ion conduction paths while the hydrophobic portions of the same sPOSS cages combine to form a barrier to methanol permeation with improved thermal stability of the hybrid membrane. Copyright (c) 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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