Sulphonated poly (glycidyl methacrylate) grafted cellophane membranes: novel application in polyelectrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC)

This work explores novel application of sulphonated Poly (Glycidyl Methacrylate) grafted cellophane membranes as polyelectrolyte membranes in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) for the first time. Cellophane membranes were grafted first with Poly (Glycidyl Methacrylate), and then the introduced epoxy groups were converted to sulfonic ones. Grafting and sulphonation processes were verified using FTIR and TGA analysis. Morphological characterization was followed using SEM analysis. Essential characters required for polyelectrolyte fuel cell membrane especially IEC, ionic conductivity, methanol permeability, thermal stability and high mechanical properties were investigated. IEC in the range of 1.02–2.55 meq/g compared to 0.9 meq/g per Nafion 117 was obtained. Nafion ionic conductivity, 0.03880 Scm⁻¹, is 4.4 times of sulphonated PGMA grafted cellophane membrane (GP%; 198); 0.00880 Scm⁻¹. The conductance show a comparable results which Nafion conductance, 1.393 Scm⁻², is only 1.65 times of sulphonated PGMA grafted cellophane membrane; 0.847 Scm⁻². It is worthy to mention here that the methanol permeability for Nafion membrane is 3.39 × 10⁻⁶ (cm² s) 8.5 folds higher than the minimum value of the sulphonated PGMA grafted cellophane membrane. The obtained results are very promising and opening new area for conducting further investigations considering the very low price of cellophane compared to Nafion.