Poly(Vinyl Alcohol)/Polyelectrolyte/Graphene Nanocomposites and Electrospining Fiber Membrane for the Development of Direct Methanol Alkaline Fuel Cell

This project will be studied within three years. The following items will be studied in the first year. (1) The size-selected Pt or Pt-Ru nanoparticles will be loaded on graphene or sulfonated graphene with the mixture of polyvinyl alcohol and polyelectrolytes as the conductive polymers in place of Nafion for fuel-cell applications. Methanol oxidation reactions and reliability of various catalysts based on carbon black, graphene, and sulfonated graphene catalyst supports will be compared under alkaline conditions. (2) Chitosan, sodium alginate, and poly(glutamic acid) will be used as polyelectrolytes in this study. The poly(vinyl alcohol)/polyelectrolyte/graphene nanocomposite membranes will be prepared and crosslinked by glutaraldehyde. Various analysis techniques will be used to characterize the nanocomposite polymer membrane structure, the physical and thermal properties, the ionic conductivity as well as methanol permeability of the as-prepared membranes. In the second year, the following items will be studied. (1) Chitosan will be modified with three different methods to get three modified chitosan with water solubility. (2) Three kinds of electro-spun fiber of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA), PVA/polyelectrolyte, and PVA/polyelectrolyte/graphene will be prepared in the study. (3) The effects to control the shape and diameter of electro-spun fiber will also be evaluated. Various analysis techniques will be used to characterize the structure, the physical and thermal properties of the electro-spun fiber membrane. The following items will be studied in the third year. (1)Preparation of Pt, Pt-Carbon, Pt-Graphene and Pt-sulfonated Graphene or series of Pt-Ru Catalysts, (2) preparation and modification of catalyst inks and electrodes, and (3) the alkaline membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs) will be fabricated by the polymer electrolyte membranes and PVA/polyelectrolyte/graphene electro-spun fiber membrane, which will be prepared in the first and second year, respectively. For the application in direct methanol alkaline fuel cells, the various polymer electrolyte membranes and PVA/polyelectrolyte/graphene electro-spun fiber membrane will be immersed in 40 wt% KOH solutions to form the KOH containing membranes. The membranes characteristics including differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetry analysis (TGA), KOH uptake, ionic conductivity and methanol permeability will be addressed and compared with other studies. In order to evaluate the applications in practical DMAFC, the potential-current density (I-V) and the power density-current density curves of the DMFCs comprised of various types of polymer electrolyte membranes and PVA/polyelectrolyte/graphene electro-spun fiber membrane at various temperatures will also be conducted.

Project ID:PB10501-3718
External Project ID:MOST104-2221-E182-054-MY3