Reorientation of magnetic graphene oxide nanosheets in crosslinked quaternized polyvinyl alcohol as effective solid electrolyte

Jia Shuin Lin, Wei Ting Ma, Chao Ming Shih, Bor Chern Yu, Li Wei Teng, Yi Chun Wang, Kong Wei Cheng, Fang Chyou Chiu, Shingjiang Jessie Lue*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

This work aims to clarify the effect of magnetic graphene oxide (GO) reorientation in a polymer matrix on the ionic conduction and methanol barrier properties of nanocomposite membrane electrolytes. Magnetic iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles were prepared and dispersed on GO nanosheets (GO-Fe3O4). The magnetic GO-Fe3O4 was imbedded into a quaternized polyvinyl alcohol (QPVA) matrix and crosslinked (CL-) with glutaraldehyde (GA) to obtain a polymeric nanocomposite. A magnetic field was applied in the through-plane direction during the drying and film formation steps. The CL-QPVA/GO-Fe3O4 nanocomposite membranes were doped with an alkali to obtain hydroxide-conducting electrolytes for direct methanol alkaline fuel cell (DMAFC) applications. The magnetic field-reoriented CL-QPVA/GO-Fe3O4 electrolyte demonstrated higher conductivity and lower methanol permeability than the unoriented CL-QPVA/GO-Fe3O4 membrane or the CL-QPVA film. The reoriented CL-QPVA/GO-Fe3O4 nanocomposite was used as the electrolyte in a DMAFC and resulted in a maximum power density of 55.4 mW·cm-2 at 60°C, which is 73.7% higher than that of the composite without the magnetic field treatment (31.9 mW·cm-2). In contrast, the DMAFC using the CL-QPVA electrolyte generated only 22.4 mW·cm-2. This research proved the surprising benefits of magnetic-field-assisted orientation of GO-Fe3O4 in facilitating the ion conduction of a polymeric electrolyte.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1003
JournalEnergies
Volume9
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - 12 2016

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI.

Keywords

  • Crosslinked quaternized polyvinyl alcohol (CL-QPVA)
  • Direct methanol alkaline fuel cell (DMAFC)
  • Graphene oxide-iron oxide (GO-FeO)
  • Magnetic field
  • Reorientation

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