Pre-treatment effect on the sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) membrane transport properties and direct methanol fuel cell performance

V. S. Silva, V. B. Silva, A. Mendes*, L. M. Madeira, H. Silva, J. Michaelmann, B. Ruffmann, S. P. Nunes

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this paper a critical study is presented on how the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) membrane properties are affected by a pre-treatment. Membranes based on sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (sPEEK) with sulfonation degree (SD) of 42% were used, plain and modified inorganically with 1wt.% of zirconium oxide. Nafion 1135 was used as reference. The results obtained show that the sPEEK polymer (SD=42%) enables the preparation of proton exchange membranes with improved properties compared to Nafion and to the ZrO2-modified sPEEK membrane, mainly due to its improved relation between proton conductivity and methanol permeation. After the pre-treatment, the plain sPEEK membrane had a performance 6.4 times higher in terms of maximum power output when used in the DMFC.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2909-2925
Number of pages17
JournalSeparation Science and Technology
Volume42
Issue number13
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2007
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Conductivity
  • Nafion
  • Permeability coefficients and direct methanol fuel cell
  • Pervaporation
  • Sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (sPEEK)

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Chemistry
  • General Chemical Engineering
  • Process Chemistry and Technology
  • Filtration and Separation

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