Nano-sized Fe2O3–SO42− solid superacid composite Nafion® membranes for direct methanol fuel cells

✍ Scribed by Lili Sun; Suli Wang; Wei Jin; Hongying Hou; Luhua Jiang; Gongquan Sun

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 840 KB
• Volume: 35
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0360-3199
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2010.07.177

✦ Synopsis

In this paper, Fe 2 O 3 eSO 4 2À /Nafion Ò composite membranes were prepared by a solution casting method. The physico-chemical properties of composite membranes were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), SEMeEDX and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The water uptake ability, proton conductivity, and methanol permeability of the composite membranes were evaluated and compared with the recast Nafion Ò membrane. The results showed that the proton conductivity and the water uptake of the composite membranes were slightly higher than that of the recast Nafion Ò membrane. The composite membrane containing 5 wt.% Fe 2 O 3 eSO 4 2-showed superior ability to suppress methanol crossover, and it further improved the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) performances with both 1 M and 5 M methanol feeding, compared with the recast Nafion Ò membrane. The preliminary 30 h lifetime test of the DMFC with the composite membrane with 5% Fe 2 O 3 eSO 4 2À indicated that the composite membrane is stable working at the real DMFC operating conditions at least during the test. These results suggest the applicability of the composite membranes in DMFCs.