Synthesis of nanocellulose composite membrane and its properties for direct methanol fuel cell

Abstract

Nanocellulose (NC) composite membrane was successfully synthesized by phase inversion method and investigated its properties for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). The 2 wt% phosphotungstic acid (PTA) and 5 wt% imidazole (Im) have been added into the pristine NC membrane and characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and particle size analyzer (PSA). PSA analysis is applied to investigate the distribution of nanocellulose particle. The particle size of nanocellulose was obtained at 88.79 nm. Its properties showed that the highest proton conductivity is obtained by NC/Im membrane at 14.98 mS.cm-1followed by NC/PTA, NC/Im/PTA, and pristine NC membrane which achieved the proton conductivity at 13.17, 6.34, and 5.32 mS.cm-1. Furthermore, the membrane selectivity of NC/Im membrane reached 2.00 × 104S.s.cm-3which also the highest value among the other membranes. The composite membranes were showed an improvement of ion exchange capacity (IEC) and water uptake value in comparison with pristine NC membrane.