Preparation and Characterization of PVA/PAM Electrolyte Membranes Containing Silica Compounds for Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Application

This study focuses on the investigation of the possibility of the crosslinked poly (vinyl alcohol) membranes with both poly (acrylic acid-co-maleic acid) (PAM) and 3-(trihydroxysilyl)-1-propanesulfonic acid(THS-PSA) for the direct methanol fuel cell application. In order to characterize the prepared membranes, the water content, the thermal gravimetric analysis, the ion exchange capacity, the ion conductivity and the methanol permeability measurements were carried out and then compared with the existing Nafion 115 membrane. The ion exchange capacity of the resulting membranes showed 1.6 similar to 1.8 meq./g membrane which was improved than Nafion 115, 0.91 meq./g membrane. In the case of the proton conductivity, the THS-PSA introduced membranes gave more excellent 0.042 similar to 0.056 S . cm(-1) than Nafion 115, 0.024 S . cm(-1). On the other hand, the methanol permeability was increased more than Nafion 115 for all the range of THA-PSA concentration.