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published version RSC Adv 2016 6 52122-52130 c6ra08037e.pdf (1.07 MB)

Development of a crosslinked quaternized poly(styrene-b-isobutylene-b-styrene)/graphene oxide composite anion exchange membrane for direct alkaline methanol fuel cell application

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posted on 2016-06-14, 13:33 authored by Pei Dai, Zhao-Hua Mo, Ri-Wei Xu, Shu Zhang, Xiao Lin, Wen-Feng LinWen-Feng Lin, Yi-Xian Wu
A cross-linked quaternized poly(styrene-b-isobutylene-b-styrene)/graphene oxide composite anion exchange membrane has been prepared via intercalation of organo-modified graphene oxide (GOA), and characterized as a promising anion exchange membrane for direct alkaline methanol fuel cell application. In order to further increase the ionic conductivity of the composite membrane, quaternized GOA (GOAN) was introduced into QSIBS. Compared with the Nafion® membrane, the new anion exchange membranes show a comparable ionic conductivity (1.95 x 10-2 S cm-1) but much lower methanol permeability (1.7 x 10-7 cm2 s-1). The QSIBS/0047OAN-0.50 wt% composite membrane has the highest selectivity, which is about 12 times higher than that of the Nafion 115 membrane. The promising performance is attributed to two factors: one is the barrier effect of the quaternized octadecylamine-functionalized graphene oxide sheets, which is unfavourable for methanol crossover; and the other is the presence of interconnected ionic transportation channels between the incorporated modified graphene oxide and polymer, which is favourable for ionic transport.

Funding

This work received financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51221002), China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec, 215036) and EPSRC (EP/I013229/1), as part of the RCUK Energy Programme.

History

School

  • Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering

Department

  • Chemical Engineering

Published in

RSC Adv.

Citation

DAI, P. ...et al., 2016. Development of a crosslinked quaternized poly(styrene-b-isobutylene-b-styrene)/graphene oxide composite anion exchange membrane for direct alkaline methanol fuel cell application. RSC Advances, 6, pp. 52122–52130.

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© The Authors. Published by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Publication date

2016

Notes

This is an Open Access Article. It is published by Royal Society of Chemistry under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence (CC BY). Full details of this licence are available at: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

eISSN

2046-2069

Language

  • en

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