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Hydrophilic TiO 2 decorated carbon nanotubes/sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) composite proton exchange membranes for fuel cells
Author(s) -
Tsen WenChin
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
polymer engineering and science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.503
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1548-2634
pISSN - 0032-3888
DOI - 10.1002/pen.25420
Subject(s) - materials science , membrane , carbon nanotube , composite number , chemical engineering , polyether ether ketone , conductivity , ether , proton exchange membrane fuel cell , dispersion (optics) , sulfonic acid , composite material , polymer chemistry , peek , polymer , organic chemistry , chemistry , biochemistry , physics , optics , engineering
Sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) is currently considered to be one of the most potential candidates of commercial perfluorinated sulfonic acid proton exchange membranes. To balance the proton conductivity and mechanical properties of SPEEK, nano TiO 2 coated carbon nanotubes (TiO 2 @CNTs) were prepared using a benzyl alcohol‐assisted sol‐gel method and then used as a new nanofiller to modify SPEEK to prepare SPEEK/TiO 2 @CNTs composite membranes. The thick insulated TiO 2 coating layer can effectively avoid the risk of electronic short‐circuiting formed by CNTs, while the hydrophilicity of TiO 2 can also reduce the polar difference between CNTs and SPEEK matrix, thus promoting the homogeneous dispersion of CNTs in the composites. As a result, the composite membranes demonstrated simultaneously improved strength and proton conductivity. Incorporating 5 wt% of TiO 2 @CNTs exhibited 31% growth in mechanical strength when compared with pure SPEEK. Moreover, the maximum conductivity was 0.104 S cm −1 (80°C) for the composite membrane with 5 wt% of TiO 2 @CNTs, which was nearly twice as high as that of SPEEK membrane (0.052 S cm −1 ).