Sulfonated PEEK-WC membranes for proton-exchange membrane fuel cell: Effect of the increasing level of sulfonation on electrochemical performances
โ Scribed by Angelo Basile; Luca Paturzo; Adolfo Iulianelli; Irene Gatto; Enza Passalacqua
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2006
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 443 KB
- Volume
- 281
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0376-7388
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โฆ Synopsis
Sulfonation of PEEK-WC powder (a glassy poly-ether ether ketone) has been performed at 80 โข C for 3 h using H 2 SO 4 conc. (96%). The degree of sulfonation varied from 15 to 40%, depending on the reaction time. The sulfonated polymers (S-PEEK-WC) were used to prepare dense membranes for possible fuel cell application. In particular, two membranes were prepared by solvent evaporation technique, using DMA as the solvent for the 2and 3-h sulfonated polymers. The dense character of both membranes has been confirmed by SEM analysis. The chemical-physical characterization has showed an increasing water solubility of the sulfonated polymers with the increasing level of sulfonation: from 7 to 11% of weight loss at 80 โข C in pure water. Despite this, a water uptake increase up to 15% has been found for the dense membranes at 80 โข C. Furthermore, if compared with a commercial Nafion membrane, S-PEEK-WC membranes exhibit comparable electrochemical performances even if at higher temperature, especially the membrane prepared with the 3-h sulfonated polymer. A power density of 284 mW/cm 2 was obtained for S-PEEK-WC membrane at 120 โข C in H 2 /air fuel cell, slightly above the corresponding value found for Nafion. At the same temperature, a Tafel slope of 70 mV was reached for the S-PEEK-WC membrane versus 100 mV for the Nafion. Finally, the specific conductivity is about 1.7 ร 10 -2 S/cm versus 1.4 ร 10 -1 S/cm of the commercial Nafion membrane.
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