Fabrication and Characterization of Chitosan/N-Phthaloyl Composite Membrane for DMFC Application

Christine Dyta Nugraeni,Mochammad Purwanto,Lukman Atmaja,Mardi Santoso,Yuli Kusumawati,Nur Hayati

doi:10.25077/jrk.v12i2.408

Abstract

Modified chitosan membrane is one of the promising membranes for polymer electrolyte membrane. Chitosan/N-phthaloyl chitosan composite membranes were fabricated to obtain high proton conductivity and low methanol permeability. Membranes were fabricated by casting method and solvent evaporation. Surface morphology, mechanical analysis, methanol permeability, and proton conductivity were used to characterize the overall properties. FT-IR spectra exhibited the presence of interaction of chitosan and n-phthaloyl/chitosan. SEM analysis showed that the surface roughness of composite membrane increases as the n-phthaloyl loading increases. The highest proton conductivity of synthesized membrane is at 2.4 mS.cm-1 and is higher than pristine chitosan membrane at 1.6 mS.cm-1. Moreover, with n-phthaloyl/chitosan addition, the methanol permeability was also improved. The correlation between proton conductivity and methanol permeability in composite membranes suggests that the blend has its potential in DMFC application.

Highlights

Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) is projected to become the important fuel cell due to high energy density, renewable fuel source, easy transport, and simple refuel[1]–[4]
The IR spectra for synthesized membrane with various content of N phthaloyl/chitosan are shown in Figure 1(c) and (d)
The considerable decrease in intensity of the O-bridge stretching in the spectrum of N-phthaloyl/chitosan membrane indicates that the greater amount of Nphthaloyl/chitosan affects the crosslinking chains in membranes

Summary

Introduction

Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) is projected to become the important fuel cell due to high energy density, renewable fuel source, easy transport, and simple refuel[1]–[4]. In a DMFC system, the proton exchange membrane represents a main major component that. The characteristics of good proton exchange membranes are high proton conductivity, low methanol permeability, great performance for thermal, chemical, and mechanical stability[6]–[8]. Nafion®, a perfluorosulfonic acid polymer membrane, is considered the most preferred J.

Methods

Results

Conclusion