Methanol permeability and properties of polymer electrolyte membrane based on graphene oxide-sulfonated (Polyether ether) ketone

Abstract

Graphene oxide sulfonated polyether ether ketone (GO-SPEEK) is a promising proton exchange membrane (PEM) to replace the commercial PEM in Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) application. The GO films were prepared from natural graphite flakes by the modified Hummer’s Method. The structure and physicochemical characterization techniques were applied to impart insight into the specific structure, element composition as well as the functional groups by using Attenuated Total Reflection infrared spectroscopy (ATR), X-Ray diffraction (XRD), and Raman Spectroscopy. The incorporation of graphene oxide in SPEEK not only improved membrane behaviors of PEM in terms of ion exchange capacity (1.231 mequiv.g-1), water uptake (53.45%) and proton conductivity (0.0537), but also positively blocking of methanol molecules passing through membrane, thus making them appealing as proton exchange membranes (PEMs).