• Macromolecular Research
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.412-417
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• 2007

In the present study, crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) membranes were prepared at different temperatures using poly(styrene sulfonic acid-co-maleic acid) (PSSA_MA) (PVA:PSSA_MA = 1:9). The hybrid mem-branes were prepared by varying the TEOS content between 5 and 30 wt%. The PSSA_MA was used both as a crosslinking agent and the hydrophilic group donor ($-SO_3H$ and/or-COOH). The proton conductivity increased with up to 20 wt% TEOS, but decreased above this level, although the water content decreased with increasing TEOS content. This result suggests that the silica doped into the membrane improved the formation of proton-conduction pathways due to the absorption of molecular water. The PVA/PSSA_MA/Silica containing TEOS 20% showed both high proton conductivity (0.026 S/cm at $90^{\circ}C$) and low methanol permeability ($5.55{\times}10^{-7}cm^2/s$).

• Membrane Journal
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.101-109
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• 2003

In the present study, crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) membranes were prepared at various crosslinking agent content using sulfosuccinic acid (SSA) containing sulfonic acid group ($SO_3H)$. To reduce methanol permeability, silica was introduced to the membrane using sol-gel process. The hybrid membranes were studied in relation to proton conductivity and methanol permeability. It was found that both these properties were very dependent on the effect of SSA content as a crosslinking agent and as a donor of hydrophilic $SO_3H)$ group. The proton conductivities of these PVA/SSA/Silica membranes are in the range from $10^{-3}\;to\;10^{-2}$S/cm and the methanol permeabilities are in the range from $10^{-8}\;to\;10^{-7}\;cm^2/sec$.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2008

A Pt-layer was deposited on the anode side of a Nafion membrane via a sputtering method in order to reduce methanol crossover in a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). The methanol permeation and the proton conductivity through the modified membranes were investigated. The performances of the direct methanol fuel cell were also tested using single cells with a Nafion membrane and the modified membranes. The Pt-layers on the membrane blocked both methanol crossover and proton transport through the membranes. Methanol permeability and proton conductivity decreased with an increase of the platinum layer thickness. At methanol concentration of 2 M, the DMFC employing the modified membrane with a platinum layer of 66 nm-thickness showed similar performance to that of a DMFC with a bare Nafion membrane in spite of the lower proton conductivity of the former. The maximum power density of the cell using the modified membrane with a platinum layer of 66 nm-thickness increased slightly while that of the cell with the bare membrane decreased abruptly when a methanol solution of 6M was supplied.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.11 no.4 s.33
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• pp.69-73
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• 2004

A series of $H_3PO_4$-doped composite membranes based on poly(vinyl alcohol)(PVA) and silica have been prepared by sol-gel process. The proton conductivity, as well as properties of swelling, methanol permeation, was measured in this study. The proton conductivity increased with the molar ratio of $H_3PO_4$ to silica. With the silica content increasing, swelling degree decreased and methanol permeability showed a slight increase. It suggested that the former was mainly determined by hydrophilicity of the membrane, while the latter was dominated by the interconnectivity of matrix. According to the value of on, the optimal conformations of these composite membranes were 60, 70, 80 wt.$\%$ of PS-x in membranes, where x were 1.5, 1.0, and 0.5, respectively. These composite membranes were thermal stability up to $200^{\circ}C$.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2004.05a
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• pp.29-32
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• 2004

Reduction of methanol crossover in proton exchange membranes (PEMs) can be achieved by 1) the selection of materials, 2) the morphology control, and 3) the adequate crosslinking [1, 2]. The selection of polymer matrix of PEM for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs) is very important because the proton conductivity and methanol permeability are largely dependent upon the properties of polymers.(omitted)

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.256-261
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• 2008

In this study, Nafion membrane was modified to prevent methanol crossover by layer-by-layer self assembly using polyaniline (PANi) as a polycation and sulfonated poly(ether sulfone) (SPES) as a polyanion onto the Nafion surface. Since PANi and SPES possess thermal and chemical stability and rigid backbone, their layer-by-layer self-assembled films on the Nafion are expected to reduce methanol permeability and to increase mechanical stability. UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy verified a linear build-up of the multilayers of PANi and SPES. We found that the thickness per bilayer was about 10 nm by TEM measurement. Although modified Nafion membrane exhibited 15% decrease of proton conductivity, it reduceded 67% of methanol permeability compared to that of the pristine Nafion membrane, resulting in 2.5 times larger selectivity. At the performance test of the fuel cell using 5M methanol as a fuel, the modified Nafion membrane showed 2.4 times higher maximum power density at $30^{\circ}C$ and 1.4 times larger at $60^{\circ}C$ than the pristine Nafion.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.314-320
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• 2005

Crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) membranes were prepared at various crosslinking temperatures using poly(acrylic acid-co-maleic acid) (PAM) containing different PAM contents. The thermal properties of these PVA/PAM membranes prepared at various reaction temperatures were characterized using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The proton conductivity and methanol permeability of PVA/PAM membranes were then investigated as PAM content was varied from 3 to 13 wt%. It was found that the proton and methanol transport were dependent on PAM content in their function both as crosslinking agent and as donor of hydrophilic -COOH groups. Both these properties decreased monotonously with increasing PAM concentration. The proton conductivities of these PVA/PAM membranes were in the range from $10^{-3}\;to\;10^{-2}S/cm$ and the methanol permeabilities from $10^{-7}\;to\;10^{-6}cm^{2}/sec$. In addition, the effect of operating temperature up to $80^{\circ}C$ on ion conductivity was examined for three selected membranes: 7, 9 and 11 wt% PAM membranes. Ion conductivity increased with increasing operating temperature and showed and S/cm at $80^{\circ}C$, respectively. The effects of crosslinking and ionomer group concentration were also examined in terms of water content, ion exchange capacity (IEC), and fixed ion concentration. In addition, the number of water molecules per ionomer site was calculated using both water contents and IEC values. With overall consideration for all the properties measured in this study, $7{\sim}9\;wt%$ PAM membrane prepared at $140^{\circ}C$ exhibited the best performance. These characteristics of PVA/PAM membranes are desirable in applications related to the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC).

• Membrane Journal
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.336-344
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• 2008

This manuscript deals with the investigation of the possibility of the crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) membranes with both poly(styrene sulfonic acid-co-maleic acid) and 3-(trihydroxysilyl)-1-propanesulfonic acid (THS-PSA) for the fuel cell application. The studies were focused on the characterization of the resulting membranes through water content, thermal gravimetric analysis, ion exchange capacity, ion conductivity and methanol permeability measurements and then compared with the existing Nafion membrane. Typically, the ion conductivity lied in the range of $10^{-3}$ to $10^{-2}\;S/cm$ while the methanol permeability showed the range of $10^{-6}$ to $10^{-8}\;cm^2/s$.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.134-142
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• 2012

A bipolar plate is a major component of a fuel cell stack, which occupies 50~60% of the total weight and over 50% of the total cost of a typical fuel cell stack. In this study, a composite bipolar plate is designed and fabricated to develop a compact and light-weight direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) stack for a small-scale Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) application. The composite bipolar plates for DMFCs are prepared by a compression molding method using resole type phenol resin as a binder and natural graphite and carbon black as a conductor filler and tested in terms of electrical conductivity, mechanical strength and hydrogen permeability. The flexural strength of 63 MPa and the in-plane electrical conductivities of 191 S $cm^{-1}$ are achieved under the optimum bipolar plate composition of phenol : 18%; natural graphite : 82%; carbon black : 3%, indicating that the composite bipolar plates exhibit sufficient mechanical strength, electrical conductivity and hydrogen permeability to be applied in a DMFC stack. A DMFC with the composite bipolar plate is tested and shows a similar cell performance with a conventional DMFC with graphite-based bipolar plate.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.144-151
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• 2015

The water-soluble poly(vinyl alcohol) membranes with the addition of sulfosuccinic acid (SSA) were prepared and to assign the ion exchange capacity, poly(4-styrene sulfonic acid-co-maleic acid) (PSSA_MA) was added to PVA according to PSSA_MA contents of 70, 80 and 90 wt%. To characterize the resulting membranes, FT-IR, water contents, ion exchange capacity, proton conductivity and methanol permeability were measured. As PSSA_MA contents increased, water contents, ion exchange capacity, proton conductivity increased, but methanol permeability decreased. From these results, the best preparation component was known as PVA10/SSA9/PSSA_MA80.