Experimental Evaluation of Effective Parameters for the Synthesis of Polysulfone‐Based Anion Exchange Membrane

Experimental evaluation using screening design is employed to determine the significant parameters in preparation of anion exchange membranes applicable in solid alkaline fuel cell. Anion exchange membranes are prepared based on quaternized polysulfone using trimethylamine and N,N,N′,N′‐tetramethyl‐1,6‐hexanediamine as amination agents. Plackett Burman and Fractional Factorial designs are used to model variable factors and responses. Chloromethylation time and temperature, amination time and temperature and molar ratio of amines to chloromethylated sites on the polymer chain are studied as the model variables. Moreover, ex situ ionic conductivity (at 25 and 60 °C) and swelling ratio (at 25 °C) of the prepared anion exchange membranes are considered as the responses. Finally, based on analysis of variance using statistical software, the chloromethylation time, the amination temperature and the molar ratio of amines are defined as the dominant parameters which significantly affect the performance of the anion exchange membranes.     

Vicious cycle during chemical degradation of sulfonated aromatic proton exchange membranes in the fuel cell application

Weak phase separation and vulnerable linking groups between aromatic units are common setbacks of sulfonated aromatic proton exchange membranes (PEMs) from durability point of view. In this study, sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) membranes were exposed to Fenton's solution for a specific time, ranging from 10 to 60 minutes. Chemical structure and morphology evolution, decay in mechanical and thermal stability, and H₂ permeability of SPEEK membranes were evaluated during the chemical degradation. Less-entangled polymeric chains with lower average molecular weight of degraded SPEEK samples diminished mechanical rigidity. In addition, reduction of aromatic rings in each repeat unit led to higher thermal decomposition rate. Furthermore, randomly distributed micro-defects in the SPEEK morphology and an increase in water sorption can reduce the fatigue strength of membranes in the wet-dry cycles. Eventually, hydrogen cross-over rate was gradually increased, and henceforth, accelerated destructive radical formation and degradation can be predicted.     

Hydrothermal synthesis of Pt/MWCNTs nanocomposite electrocatalysts for proton exchange membrane fuel cell systems

A hydrothermal method for preparation of size-controlled Pt nanoparticles dispersed highly on multiwalled carbon nanotubes (Pt/MWCNTs) has been studied to optimize the effective parameters (temperature, time, pH and stirring rate) using Taguchi method. The synthesized Pt/MWCNTs nanocomposite samples were characterized through X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyses to identify mean Pt nanoparticles size and Pt content. The analysis of the primary experimental data and demonstration of the main effect trend of each parameter showed that a reaction temperature of about 140 °C, a reaction period of 5 h, a slightly basic reaction pH (∼9) and a stirring rate of 500 rpm are the optimum process conditions which give a low mean Pt nanoparticles size (2.8 nm) and a high Pt content (19.4 wt.%) simultaneously. Cyclic voltammetry (CV) analysis showed that under optimum conditions the synthesized sample gives a specific surface area of 99 m² g⁻¹. Obtaining the polarization curves for the two fabricated membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) using the optimized catalyst and a commercial Pt/C catalyst (10 wt.%, Aldrich) with Pt loading of 0.4 mg cm⁻² demonstrated that the catalyst prepared under optimum conditions shows a considerably better performance.     

Castor oil transesterification reaction: A kinetic study and optimization of parameters

In this paper, parameters affecting castor oil transesterification reaction were investigated. Applying four basic catalysts including NaOCH₃, NaOH, KOCH₃ and KOH the best one with maximum biodiesel yield was identified. Using Taguchi method consisting four parameters and three levels, the best experimental conditions were determined. Reaction temperature (25, 65 and 80 °C), mixing intensity (250, 400 and 600 rpm), alcohol/oil ratio (4:1, 6:1 and 8:1) and catalyst concentration (0.25, 0.35 and 0.5%) were selected as experimental parameters. It was concluded that reaction temperature and mixing intensity can be optimized. Using the optimum results, we proposed a kinetic model which resulted in establishing an equation for the beginning rate of transesterification reaction. Furthermore, applying ASTM D 976 correlation, minimum cetane number of produced biodiesel was determined as 37.1.     

Autothermal reforming of methane to synthesis gas: Modeling and simulation

Autothermal reforming (ATR), that is the combination of non-catalytic partial oxidation and adiabatic steam reforming, is an important process to produce synthesis gas (syngas) from natural gas. The main scope of this work is proposing a mathematical model considering an autothermal reformer consisting of two distinct sections; a combustion section and a catalytic bed section. In the combustion section, temperature and composition were predicted using 108 simultaneous elementary reactions considering 28 species. The results were considered as initial conditions for the catalytic bed section. A one-dimensional heterogeneous reactor model was used for kinetic simulation of the second section. Results of the model were compared by ATR process published data.     

Axial response and material efficiency of tapered helical piles

Different techniques have been proposed to increase the bearing capacity of open-ended piles.Welding helices to the shaft and tapering the pile shaft could be used simultaneously to enhance the static and dynamic behaviors of these piles.This paper subjects the bearing capacity,stiffness,frictional behavior,and material efficiency of the tapered helical piles to scrutiny.Tapered helical piles are introduced herein as an alternative option to improve the material efficiency of hollow piles.Based on the Taguchi method,a series of experiments was designed and conducted.The axial responses of tapered helical piles are also investigated using finite element analyses.The results derived from loadedisplacement curves and strain gages are used to characterize the axial compression responses of tapered helical piles.The effects of tapered angle,helices diameter and helices distance are examined using dimensionless parameters,and the degree of contribution of these factors is calculated on each of the enumerated variables individually.Experimental results show that the shaft friction resistance of tapered helical piles increases continuously with the pile head settlement.Furthermore,the effect of tapered wall on the shaft friction resistance is more tangible at low stress levels.The results showed that the relative material efficiency factor of the optimum pile could be 2.5 times that of unoptimized pile with a similar quantity of material.     

Nitrogen doped graphene/cobalt-based catalyst layers of a PEM fuel cell: Performance evaluation and multi-objective optimization

The proton exchange membrane fuel cell could be made more commercially viable by substituting the expensive platinic catalyst without loss of performance. This should be done simultaneously through optimization and use of a non-precious metal catalyst. In this study, multi-objective optimization of the catalyst layer was done on nonprecious metal catalysts. Nitrogen-doped graphene (NG)-based cobalt was synthesized as a non-precious metal catalyst. Differential equations were solved at the modeling stage by the shooting method, and objective functions were solved at the optimization stage using sequential quadratic programming. NG-based cobalt was evaluated in a cell and then compared with the platinum catalyst. Results present the synthesized non-precious catalyst as an appropriate replacement for existing precious metal catalyst. Also, the polarization curve demonstrates that the current modeling is in good agreement with NG-based cobalt catalyst. Finally, the Pareto curve at the voltage of 0.6 V (and 300 A/m² current density in the base case) indicated that the best tradeoff between cost and performance of the catalyst layer was achieved when the current density was increased in the range of 5% to 15%.