• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.173-180
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• 2009

In order to develop a novel polymer electrolyte membrane for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC), styrene monomer was graft-polymerized into poly(tetrafluoroethylene perfluoropropyl vinyl ether) (PFA) film followed by a sulfonation reaction. The graft polymerization was prepared by the $\Upsilon$-ray radiation-grafting method. Subsequently, sulfonation of the radiation-grafted film was carried out in a chlorosulfonic acid/1,2-dichloroethane (2 v/v%) solution. The chemical, physical, electrochemical and morphological properties of the radiation-grafted membranes (PFA-g-PSSA) were characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The water uptake, ionic conductivity, and methanol permeability of the PFA-g-PSSA membrane were also measured. The cell performances of MEA prepared with the PFA-g-PSSA membranes were evaluated and the cell resistances were measured by an impedance analyzer. The MEA using PFA-g-PSSA membranes showed superior performance for DMFCs in comparison with the commercial Nafion 112 membrane.

• Korean Membrane Journal
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.52-56
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• 2007

A proton exchange membrane was prepared by ${\gamma}-irradiation-induced$ grafting of styrene into poly(tetrafluoro-ethylene-co-perfluoropropyl vinyl ether) (PFA) and subsequent sulfonation reaction. The degree of grafting (DOG) increased with an increase in the absorbed dose. The prepared membranes showed high ion exchange capacity reaching 3.0 meq/g, which exceeded the performance of commercially available perfluorosulfonic acid membranes such as Nafion. The proton conductivity of PFA-g-PSSA membrane increased with the DOG and reached 0.17 S/cm for the highest sample at room temperature. The DMFC performance of the prepared membranes with 50% DOG was comparable to that of Nafion membrane.