Abstract
Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) is considered a promising power supplier for various applications because of its high theoretical energy density of methanol, low emission, and moderate operation temperature. Generally, a high selective membrane with high proton conductivity and low methanol crossover is suitable for DMFC. Commercialized Nafion® exhibits high chemical stability and proton conductivity, but suffers high methanol crossover which leads to decrease of cell voltage and lifetime. In the present study, mesoporous SBA-15 silica was used as the additive of Nafion membrane. Mesoporous silica SBA-15 of different morphologies with and without surfactant are synthesized then imbedded into the Nafion® membrane by solvent-recasting procedure using N,N’-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) and 2-propanol (iPA) as the solvents. Pore directing agent of SBA-15, P123, can serve as nonaqueous proton transporter which may assist proton conductivity of composite membrane. The additive materials were characterized with powder-XRD, N2 sorption, and SEM. The characteristics of composite membranes prepared by solvent recasting procedure were examined with thickness from spiral micrometer, methanol permeability, proton conductivity, selectivity, and single cell performance test.
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