Novel high-performance nanohybrid polyelectrolyte membranes based on bio-functionalized montmorillonite for fuel cell applications

This study is concerned with electrochemical investigation of novel high-performance proton exchange membranes based on bio-functionalized montmorillonite and Nafion (R). It was found that the incorporation of 2 wt% BMMT into Nafion (R) polyelectrolyte matrix results in significantly improved methanol-air fuel cell efficiency of 30% compared to 14% for Nafion (R) 117, and about 23-times higher membrane selectivity.