Effect of Temperature on Sulfonated Poly (Ether Ether Ketone) Blended with Charged Surface Modifying Macromolecule Membrane for DMFCs

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to determine the behavior of modified sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) with degree of sulfonation (DS) 68% blended by charged surface modifying macromolecule (cSMM) at different operating temperatures (room to 80°C) for direct methanol fuel cell application. The fabricated SPEEK (68)/cSMM membrane was compared with SPEEK (68) and Nafion112 membranes in terms of water uptake, proton conductivity, and methanol permeability at relatively high temperatures. The water uptake of SPEEK (68)/ cSMM was higher than that of SPEEK (68) and Nafion112 over the temperature ranges studied; however it was dissolved at 80°C. Proton conductivity of SPEEK (68)/cSMM showed improvement compared to SPEEK (68) at temperature range, but still lower than Nafion112, moreover methanol permeability behavior of fabricated membrane was lower at high temperatures as compared to that of SPEEK and Nafion112 and better overall performance was allocated to the fabricated membrane at 60°C.These results indicate that SPEEK (68)/cSMM membrane is promising to be used as a proton exchange membrane in direct methanol fuel cell.