Nafion blend membranes for the direct methanol fuel cell
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abstract
Solution-cast and heat-pressed Nafion blend membranes were prepared with various polymers, (poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA), poly(acrylic acid), polyacrylonitrile, poly(ethylene oxide), and poly(ethylene glycol)), at various blend compositions and annealing temperatures. Nafion/PVA blend membranes at high Nafion content resulted in a similar proton conductivity, but three times lower methanol permeability compared to Nafion 117 at a specific annealing temperature. An unusual trend was observed in Nafion/PVA (1:1 wt ratio) blend membranes, where proton conductivity remained relatively constant, but methanol permeability decreased by approximately one order of magnitude with increasing annealing temperature. The role of methanol crossover was also addressed through direct methanol fuel cell performance tests, where improved performance was achieved with Nafion/PVA blend membranes compared to Nafion 117 at high methanol feed concentrations. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 2006 AIChE National Meeting (San Francisco, CA 11/12-17/2006).
