Activated Boron Nitride Research Articles

Functionalized boron nitride embedded sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone) proton exchange membrane for direct methanol fuel cell applications

Nanostructured materials have been utilized in tailoring the proton exchange membrane (PEM) with the attempt to reduce the methanol transport and enhance proton conductivity in direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) applications. In this study, polyaniline coated activated boron nitride (PANI-A-BN) was embedded in sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) membranes for DMFC applications. The influence of boron nitride (BN) and activated boron nitride (A-BN) was also compared. The crystallinity and morphological analyses revealed that structure of PANI-A-BN nanocomposites were altered. The dispersion of functionalized BN was clearly witnessed from the SEM and AFM images of SPEEK membranes PANI-A-BN/SPEEK membrane exhibited a higher water uptake (58.42%) and ion exchange capacity (IEC) (1.76 meqg−1) compared to other membranes prepared in this work. The methanol permeability was significantly reduced in BN and functionalized BN embedded SPEEK nanocomposites membranes (3.08 ×10−7 cm−2S−1). The proton conductivity and chemical stability of PANI-A-BN/SPEEK membrane were improved. The DMFC performance of nanocomposite membrane was compared with that of commercial Nafion membrane. 0.1 wt% PANI-A-BN/SPEEK membrane exhibited the highest open circuit voltage and power density of 0.158 V and 11.38 mW/cm2, respectively.

Water transport properties of boron nitride nanosheets incorporated thin film nanocomposite membrane for salt removal

This work has focused on the fabrication of thin film composite (TFC) and thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membranes for reverse osmosis (RO) application. Raw boron nitride (BN) and chemically activated boron nitride (A-BN) were used as nanofillers in polysulfone support layer and trimesoyl chloride (TMC) to improve the membrane performance. Different concentrations of BN and A-BN (ranging from 0 to 1 wt %) were added to the polysulfone (PSf) microporous support and polyamide layer was formed on top of PSf support through interfacial polymerization of 1,3-Phenylendiamine and trimesoyl chloride. The fabricated TFN membranes were characterized in terms of membranes structure, contact angle, separation properties, as well as RO performance. According to AFM and SEM images, TFN membranes showed larger average pore size and higher surface roughness as compared with TFC membrane. Thus, TFN membrane showed higher pure water flux but lower NaCl rejection. The addition of BN led to increase in pore size of membrane without increase the selectivity of membrane. The addition of both BN and A-BN into polyamide layer does not aid to improve the properties of membrane. In conclusion, BN nanoparticles showed the potential to be used as nanofillers that aid in formation of larger pore size.