• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.35 no.5
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• pp.472-477
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• 2011

To study the effects of the acid group of functionalized MWNT (multiwalled carbon nanotube) on the thermal and mechanical properties of polyacrylonitrile(PAN) nanofibers, acid ($H_2SO_4/HNO_3$) treated MWNT (O-MWNT) were further functionalized by diazonium salt reaction with 5-aminoisophthalic acid (IPA). Compared to O-MWNT, IPA-MWNT with isophthalic acid group showed a better dispersion stability in polar solvents and IPA-MWNT/PAN composite film displayed lower heat of reaction (${\Delta}H$) than that of homo PAN when stabilized under air atmosphere. The continuous electrospun fibers were prepared using a conductive water bath. PAN fibers containing 1 wt% of IPA-MWNT showed an increase of tensile strength by 100% and tensile modulus by 240% compared to the PAN fibers without IPA-MWNT.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.411-426
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• 2022

Energy plays a significant role in modern lifestyle because of our extensive reliance over energy-operating devices. Therefore, there is a need for alternative and green energy resources that can fulfill the energy demand. For this, fuel cell (FCs) especially anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) have gained tremendous attention over the other (FCs) due to their fast reaction kinetics without using noble catalyst and allow to use of cheaper polymers with high performance. But lack of highly conductive, chemically, and mechanically stable anion exchange membrane (AEM) still main obstacle to the development of high performance AEMFCs. Therefore, graphene-based polymer composite membranes came into the existence as AEMs for the FCs. The exceptional properties of the graphene help to improve the performance of AEMs. Still, there are lot of challenges in the graphene derivatives based AEMs because of their high tendency of agglomeration in polymer matrix which reduced their potential. To overcome this issue surface modification of graphene derivatives is necessary to restrict their agglomeration and conserved their potential features that can help to improve the performance of AEM. Therefore, this review focus on the surface modification of graphene derivatives and their role in the fabrication of AEMs for the FCs.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.30 no.5
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• pp.307-318
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• 2020

Conventional perfluorinated sulfonic acid membrane, Nafion is widely used for vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB). It is desired to prevent vanadium ion permeation through a membrane to retain the capacity, and to keep the cell efficiency of a VRFB. Highly proton conductive and chemically stable Nafion membranes, however, suffer from high vanadium permeation, which induce the reduction in charge and discharge capacity by side reactions of vanadium ions. In this study, to resolve the issue, silica nanoparticles, which are functionalized with 3-aminopropyl group (fS) are introduced to enhance the long-term performance of a VRFB by lowering vanadium permeation. It is expected that amine groups on silica nanoparticles are converted to positive ammonium ion, which could deteriorate positively charged vanadium ions' crossover by Gibbs-Donnan effect. There is reduction in proton conductivity may due to acid-base complexation between fS and Nafion side chains, but ion selectivity of proton to vanadium ion is enhanced by introducing fS to Nafion membranes. With the composite membranes of Nafion and fS, VRFBs maintain their discharge capacity up to 80% at a high current density of 150 mA/㎠ during 200 cycles.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.172-178
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• 1997

Polyaniline(PANI)-stearic acid(SA) composite monolayer was formed at the air-water interface. The stearic acid as a surfactant was used to promote PANI monolayer formation. Uniform PANI-SA monolayer assemblies with Y type and transfer ratio of ca. 1 were fabricated using the Langmuir-Blodgett(LB) technique. The PANI-SA composite LB films with high electrical conductivity of $10^{-1}{\sim}10^{-2}S/cm$ were obtained by doping of HCl or $I_2$, and their conductivity revealed essentially close value as that of conventional PAHI-HCl complex. Especially, iodine is found to be the most promising dopant, since it gives a remarkable stability for the application as a polymer electrode in the MIM molecular device consisted of acceptor, sensitizer, and donor. The structure and physical properties of PANI-SA LB films were investigated through the near-ir UV, FT-IR, and Cyclic voltammetry.