Issue 4, 2002
From the journal:

Journal of Materials Chemistry

Huanting Wang,a   Brett A. Holmberg,a   Limin Huang,a   Zhengbao Wang,a   Anupum Mitra,a   Joseph M. Norbecka  and  Yushan Yan*a  

* Corresponding authors

a College of Engineering - Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT), and Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Riverside, California, USA
E-mail: yushan.yan@ucr.edu
Fax: +1(909) 787-5696
Tel: +1 (909) 787-2068

Abstract

Sol–gel derived sulfonated phenethylsilica with hydrophilic –Si-OH and proton conductive –SO3H functional groups was used as a bifunctional additive to improve the proton conductivity and water uptake characteristics of Nafion. Nafion-bifunctional silica (NBS) composite membranes were prepared by casting Nafion–ethanol solutions mixed with sulfonated phenethylsilica sol. The ion exchange capability of NBS composite membranes increases linearly with the amount of bifunctional silica incorporated, and is about 1.9 × 10−3 mol SO3H g−1 for NBS with 7.5 wt% silica. Liquid water uptake measurements showed that NBS composite membranes have higher water uptake (g H2O g−1 composite membrane) than bare recast Nafion while the degree of hydration (i.e., nH2O–SO3H) remains fairly constant. The NBS composite membranes showed improved proton conductivity when compared with bare recast Nafion and Nafion 117 membranes at 80 °C and over a range of relative humidity.

Graphical abstract: Nafion-bifunctional silica composite proton conductive membranes

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/B107498A
Article type
Paper
Submitted
20 Aug 2001
Accepted
04 Jan 2002
First published
01 Mar 2002

J. Mater. Chem., 2002,12, 834-837

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Nafion-bifunctional silica composite proton conductive membranes

H. Wang, B. A. Holmberg, L. Huang, Z. Wang, A. Mitra, J. M. Norbeck and Y. Yan, J. Mater. Chem., 2002, 12, 834 DOI: 10.1039/B107498A

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