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Polymer grafted GO/sulfonated copolyimide proton exchange nanocomposite membrane: as a polymer electrolyte membranes fuel cell

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Abstract

Attaining a high performance proton exchange membrane as a suitable replacement for Nafion is one of the research priorities of fuel cell research. In this regard, we synthesized a copolyimide consisting of sulfonic acid substituents filled with different content of GO grafted sulfonated poly (urea-co-urethane) via in situ condensation polymerization. All nanocomposites showed a significant increase in thermal, mechanical properties, ion exchange capacity (IEC), water uptake (WU) and proton conductivity by incorporation of the modified GO nanosheets and the best results were found for membrane containing 1 wt% modified GO loading. The nanocomposite membrane with 1 wt% modified GO nanosheets exhibits 0.73 meq g−1 IEC and 7.3 mS cm−1 proton conductivity at room temperature. A single fuel cell test of this membrane demonstrates a maximum power density of 26.30 mW cm−2 at 0.26 V.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the Iran National Science Foundation (INSF) for the grants provided for them.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Tehran, P.O. Box 14155-6455, Tehran, Iran

    Leila Ahmadian-Alam, Mahdi Teymoori & Hossein Mahdavi

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  1. Leila Ahmadian-Alam
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  2. Mahdi Teymoori
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  3. Hossein Mahdavi
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Correspondence to Hossein Mahdavi.

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Ahmadian-Alam, L., Teymoori, M. & Mahdavi, H. Polymer grafted GO/sulfonated copolyimide proton exchange nanocomposite membrane: as a polymer electrolyte membranes fuel cell. J Polym Res 27, 302 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-020-02049-w

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