Novel sulfonated Nafion®-based composite membranes with pillararene as selective artificial proton channels for application in direct methanol fuel cells

Shen, Liangbo; Sun, Zhenzhen; Chu, Yuhao; Zou, Jing; Deshusses, Marc A.

doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2015.07.073

Cited by 29 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(95 reference statements)

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“…[15] In 2015, inspired by Hou et al's study of PA [5] on the construction of selective artificial proton channels, Shen, Deshusses and co-workers introduced PA [5] into Nafion ®based composite membranes for application in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). [20] As expected, the addition of compound 1 to Nafion ® membranes significantly improved properties on DMFCs. First of all, they used the solvent casting technique to prepare the PA [5]/Nafion composite membranes.…”

Section: Proton Channelssupporting

confidence: 65%

Pillar[n]arenes for Construction of Artificial Transmembrane Channels

Feng

Sun

Barboiu

2018

Israel Journal of Chemistry

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Pillar[n]arenes have been intensively used during the last decade in supramolecular chemistry as host systems for guest recognition and self-assembly, toward functional materials and devices. They present electron-rich and tuneable size cavities, as well as reactive rims for further functionalization. Their unique pillar shape promotes pillar[n] arenes as molecular analogues of carbon nanotubes. For this reasons pillar[n]arenes have been embedded into membranes and used to construct artificial water, proton, ions and molecular channels. This review discusses the incipient developments of the first artificial channels based on pillar[n] arenes. We include also systems that integrate pillar[n]arenes as synthetic elements for the construction of selective pores of nanodevices for ion rectification.

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Section: Proton Channelssupporting

confidence: 65%

Pillar[n]arenes for Construction of Artificial Transmembrane Channels

Feng

Sun

Barboiu

2018

Israel Journal of Chemistry

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“…Ion exchange capacity (IEC) measurements help determine the total amount of exchangeable cations in the SPVA‐MOR membranes per unit mass, and they give an indication of the sulfonation degree achieved in those membranes, where a higher IEC value denotes higher sulfonation degree . In this work, IEC value quantifies the number of milligram equivalents of ions (sulfonic acid groups) per 1 g of the dry SPVA‐MOR membrane .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of polymer sulfonation on the proton conductivity and fuel cell performance of polyvinylalcohol‐mordenite direct methanol fuel cell membranes

Üçtuğ

Nijem

2017

Asia-Pacific J Chem Eng

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Sulfonated polyvinylalcohol‐mordenite (SPVA‐MOR) membranes for direct methanol fuel cell use were synthesized and characterized. It had earlier been found out that polyvinylalcohol‐mordenite (PVA‐MOR) membranes, while having excellent methanol permeability and modest proton conductivity values, had inferior direct methanol fuel cell performances than Nafion™. Sulfonating the polyvinylalcohol matrix had been suggested to improve the proton conductivity. In this work, polyvinylalcohol powder was sulfonated by using propane sultone as the sulfonating agent prior to the membrane synthesis. Morphological analyses revealed that the zeolite particles mixed homogeneously within the polymer matrix. Sulfonating the polymer slightly decreased both water and methanol uptakes. Both in PVA‐MOR and SPVA‐MOR membranes, water uptake turned out to be higher than the methanol uptake. SPVA‐MOR membranes were found to have an average proton conductivity of 0.052 S·cm−1 when compared with the 0.036 S·cm−1 of PVA‐MOR membranes, while Nafion™ has a proton conductivity of approximately 0.1 S·cm−1. The increase in the proton conductivity upon sulfonation despite the decrease in water uptake was explained by the dominance of the Grotthuss mechanism over the vehicular mechanism for proton conductivity. Fuel cell test results showed that while SPVA‐MOR membranes cannot outperform Nafion™, they give higher power output than PVA‐MOR membranes, especially at low temperatures and high methanol concentrations. © 2017 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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“…The ion exchange membrane, a core component of fuel cells, is used to separate the cathode and anode from the transport ions. Shen et al 59 prepared sulfonated Nafion spillararene composite proton exchange membranes (PEMs) and applied them as the electrolyte in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) and Liu et al 60 fabricated high conductivity and excellent alkaline stability anion exchange membranes (AEMs) for anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs).…”

Section: Pillararene-based Membranesmentioning

confidence: 99%