Abstract
Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFCs) research focuses on improving Proton Exchange Membranes (PEMs) to enhance ion exchange and proton conduction. Although Nafion® is stable both chemically and thermally, however it suffers methanol crossover. In this study, a novel composite PEM was introduced by blending chitosan (CS), hydrophilic surface modifying macromolecules (LSMM), and mesoporous siliceous phosphotungstic acid (mPTA-Si) at varying loadings. Notably, the CS/LSMM membrane with 0.25 wt% of mPTA-Si content and optimized hot pressing technique conditions (5 tonnes, 90 s and 135 °C) exhibited superior performance, with a proton conductivity of 0.097 S/cm and a power density of 60 mW/cm2. Additionally, properties such as tensile strength and ion exchange capacity surpassed those of pure CS by 14 % and 56.12 %, respectively. The unique characteristics of CS, mPTA, and LSMM collectively contributed to the promising attributes of the CS/LSMM/0.25mPTA-Si membrane for enhancing fuel cell performance.
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