A novel membrane for DMFC - Na2Ti3O7 nanotubes/Nafion composite membrane |
| |
Authors: | Yongsheng WeiLiangbo Shen Zhongming WangWein-Duo Yang Hong Zhu Hongtan Liu |
| |
Affiliation: | a School of Science, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China b Beijing No. 4 High School, Beijing 100034, China c Institute of Modern Catalysis, Department of Organic Chemistry, State key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China d Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Kaohsiung 807, Taiwan, ROC e Clean Energy Research Institute, College of Engineering, University of Miami, FL 33146, USA |
| |
Abstract: | In this study, novel sodium titanate (Na2Ti3O7) nanotube/Nafion® composite membranes were prepared by a solution casting method. The properties of these composite membranes were studied using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Additionally, the water uptake, methanol permeability, proton conductivity, and selectivity of the composite membranes were measured to evaluate the applicability of these membranes in DMFCs. It was found that the addition of Na2Ti3O7 nanotubes enhanced the water uptake and reduced the methanol permeability of the composite membranes. The proton conductivity and methanol permeability depend on the Na2Ti3O7 nanotube content. Using the selectivity, the optimal nanotube contents was found to be 5 wt%. The new composite membrane was found to have significantly higher selectivity than a pure Nafion® membrane and thus has good potential to outperform Nafion® in DMFCs. |
| |
Keywords: | DMFC Na2Ti3O7/Nafion® composite membrane Methanol crossover Sodium titanate nanotubes Membrane selectivity |
本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录! |
|