Sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone)(SPEEK)is a very promising alternative membrane material for direct methanol fuel cells.However,with a fairly high degree of sulfonation(DS),SPEEK membranes can swell excessively and...Sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone)(SPEEK)is a very promising alternative membrane material for direct methanol fuel cells.However,with a fairly high degree of sulfonation(DS),SPEEK membranes can swell excessively and even dissolve at high temperature.This restricts mem-branes from working above a high tolerable temperature to get high proton conductivity.To deal with this contra-dictory situation,insolvable zirconium tricarboxybutyl-phosphonate(Zr(PBTC))powder was employed to make a composite with SPEEK polymer in an attempt to improve temperature tolerance of the membranes.SPEEK/Zr(PBTC)composite membranes were obtained by casting a homogeneous mixture of Zr(PBTC)and SPEEK in N,N-dimethylacetamide on a glass plate and then evaporating the solvent at 60℃.Many characteristics were investigated,including thermal stability,liquid uptake,methanol permeability and proton conductivity.Results showed significant improvement not only in tem-perature tolerance,but also in methanol resistance of the SPEEK/Zr(PBTC)composite membranes.The mem-branes containing 30 wt-%,40 wt-% of Zr(PBTC)had their methanol permeability around 10^(-7) cm^(2)·s^(-1) at room temperature to 80℃,which was one order of magnitude lower than that of Nafion H 115.High proton conductivity of the composite membranes,however,could also be achieved from higher temperature applied.At 100% rela-tive humidity,above 90℃ the conductivity of the compo-site membrane containing 40 wt-% of Zr(PBTC)exceeded that of the Nafion H 115 membrane and even reached a high value of 0.36 S·cm^(-1) at 160uC.Improved applicable tem-perature and high conductivity of the composite membrane indicatedits promisingapplication in DMFC operationsat high temperature.展开更多
基金Science Foundation of China(The Youth Fund)(20606025)the science and technology development plan of Tianjin(05YFJZCOO600)Program fro Changjiang Scholars and Innova-tive Research Team in University(PCSIRT)for financial support.
文摘Sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone)(SPEEK)is a very promising alternative membrane material for direct methanol fuel cells.However,with a fairly high degree of sulfonation(DS),SPEEK membranes can swell excessively and even dissolve at high temperature.This restricts mem-branes from working above a high tolerable temperature to get high proton conductivity.To deal with this contra-dictory situation,insolvable zirconium tricarboxybutyl-phosphonate(Zr(PBTC))powder was employed to make a composite with SPEEK polymer in an attempt to improve temperature tolerance of the membranes.SPEEK/Zr(PBTC)composite membranes were obtained by casting a homogeneous mixture of Zr(PBTC)and SPEEK in N,N-dimethylacetamide on a glass plate and then evaporating the solvent at 60℃.Many characteristics were investigated,including thermal stability,liquid uptake,methanol permeability and proton conductivity.Results showed significant improvement not only in tem-perature tolerance,but also in methanol resistance of the SPEEK/Zr(PBTC)composite membranes.The mem-branes containing 30 wt-%,40 wt-% of Zr(PBTC)had their methanol permeability around 10^(-7) cm^(2)·s^(-1) at room temperature to 80℃,which was one order of magnitude lower than that of Nafion H 115.High proton conductivity of the composite membranes,however,could also be achieved from higher temperature applied.At 100% rela-tive humidity,above 90℃ the conductivity of the compo-site membrane containing 40 wt-% of Zr(PBTC)exceeded that of the Nafion H 115 membrane and even reached a high value of 0.36 S·cm^(-1) at 160uC.Improved applicable tem-perature and high conductivity of the composite membrane indicatedits promisingapplication in DMFC operationsat high temperature.
