Functionalized carbon nanotube-poly(arylene sulfone) composite membranes for direct methanol fuel cells with enhanced performance
- 作者：Sang Hoon Joo ; Chanho Pak ; Eun Ah Kim ; Yoon Hoi Lee ; Hyuk Chang ; Doyoung Seung ; Yeong Suk Choi ; Jong-Bong Park ; Tae Kyoung Kim
- 关键词：Polymer electrolyte membrane ; Carbon nanotubes ; Poly(arylene sulfone)s ; Composites ; Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) ; Power density
- 刊名：Journal of Power Sources
- 出版年：2008
- 期刊代码：58_03787753
- 类别：ce
- 出版时间：15 May 2008
- 卷：180
- 期：1
- 页码：63-70
- 文件大小：1333 K
摘要
A new type of composite membrane, consisting of functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and sulfonated poly(arylene sulfone) (sPAS), is prepared for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) applications. The CNTs modified with sulfonic acid or PtRu nanopaticles are dispersed within the sPAS matrix by a solution casting method to afford SO3CNT-sPAS or PtRu/CNT-sPAS composite membranes, respectively. Characterization of the composite membranes reveals that the functionalized CNTs are homogeneously distributed within the sPAS matrix and the composite membranes contain smaller ion clusters than the neat sPAS. The composite membranes exhibit enhanced mechanical properties in terms of tensile strength, strain and toughness, which leads to improvements in ion conductivity and methanol permeability compared with the neat sPAS membrane. In DMFC performance tests, the use of a PtRu/CNT-sPAS membrane yields high power density compared with the neat sPAS membrane, which demonstrates that the improved properties of the composite membranes induce an increase in power density. The strategy for CNT-sPAS composite membranes presented in this work can potentially be extended to other CNT-polymer composite systems.