Design of Promising Green Cation-Exchange-Membranes-Based Sulfonated PVA and Doped with Nano Sulfated Zirconia for Direct Borohydride Fuel Cells

Abstract

The direct borohydride fuel cell (DBFC) is a low-temperature fuel cell that requires the development of affordable price and efficient proton exchange membranes for commercial purposes. In this context, super-acidic sulfated zirconia (SO4ZrO2) was embedded into a cheap and environmentally friendly binary polymer blend, developed from poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and iota carrageenan (IC). The percentage of SO4ZrO2 ranged between 1 and 7.5 wt.% in the polymeric matrix. The study findings revealed that the composite membranes’ physicochemical features improved by adding increasing amounts of SO4ZrO2. In addition, there was a decrease in the permeability and swelling ratio of the borohydride membranes as the SO4ZrO2 weight% increased. Interestingly, the power density increased to 76 mW cm−2 at 150 mA cm−2, with 7.5 wt.% SO4ZrO2, which is very close to that of Nafion117 (91 mW cm−2). This apparent selectivity, combined with the low cost of the eco-friendly fabricated membranes, points out that DBFC has promising future applications.

Design, Synthesis and Evaluation of Novel Antimicrobial Polymers Based on the Inclusion of Polyethylene Glycol/TiO2 Nanocomposites in Cyclodextrin as Drug Carriers for Sulfaguanidine

“…Incorporation of inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) such as Ag, Pd, CaO, Co 3 O 4 , TiO 2 , ZnO 2 , CuO, MgO, and others into the polymers, which are called nanocomposite polymers, not only dramatically changes their physical properties but also applies new functionalities [53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62]. Polymeric nanocomposites can be represented as core-shell-type NPs wherein the inorganic core may be either metal and/or a metal-oxide NP, and the organic shell can be a polymer.…”

Evaluation of sulfonated chitosan-g-sulfonated polyvinyl alcohol/polyethylene oxide/sulfated zirconia composite polyelectrolyte membranes for direct borohydride fuel cells: Solution casting against the electrospun membrane fabrication technique

“…The fabrication steps of SZrO 2 were detailed in our previous studies (Gouda et al, 2021a;Gouda et al, 2021f). The membranes preparation was as follows: 10 wt% PVA solution was prepared by dissolving PVA (99% hydrolysis, medium MW, Sigma-Aldrich, United States) in water at 90 °C for 2 h with vigorous stirring to obtain a clear solution.…”

“…PVA is a synthetic polymer, cheap, chemically stable, and nontoxic (Gouda et al, 2021d;Gouda et al, 2021e;Gouda et al, 2021f;Gouda et al, 2021g). In acidic media, the hydroxyl groups of PVA and chitosan (CS) bond with aldehyde groups of glutaraldehyde to form hemiacetal or acetal linkages (Gouda et al, 2021f).…”

“…PVA is a synthetic polymer, cheap, chemically stable, and nontoxic (Gouda et al, 2021d;Gouda et al, 2021e;Gouda et al, 2021f;Gouda et al, 2021g). In acidic media, the hydroxyl groups of PVA and chitosan (CS) bond with aldehyde groups of glutaraldehyde to form hemiacetal or acetal linkages (Gouda et al, 2021f). Moreover, PVA and CS functional groups (-OH) react with carboxylic groups of sulfosuccinic acid by esterification reaction to crosslink and sulfonate PVA and CS simultaneously.…”

“…Also, the addition of SZrO 2 to the membrane leads to additional ions within the PVA matrix (Gouda et al, 2021a). Gouda et al (2021f) reported that a PVA blend membrane containing nano SZrO 2 exhibited lower fuel permeability, lower swelling, and improved mechanical properties.…”