Novel sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone)/silica coated carbon nanotubes high-performance composite membranes for direct methanol fuel cell

摘要: The major risk of using carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to modify proton exchange membranes (PEMs) in fuel cells is possible short-circuiting due the excellent electrical conductivity CNTs. In this article, silica-coated CNTs (SiO2@CNTs) were successfully prepared by a simple sol–gel process and then used as new additive preparation sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone) (SPEEK)-based composite membranes. insulated hydrophilic silica coated on surface not only eliminated short-circuiting, but also enhanced interfacial interaction between SPEEK, hence promoted homogeneous dispersion SPEEK matrix. Moreover, compared methanol permeability pure membrane (3.42 × 10−7 cm2 s−1), SPEEK/SiO2@CNT with SiO2@CNT loading 5 wt% exhibits almost one order magnitude decrease crossover, while still remained above 10−2 S cm−1 at room temperature. obtained results expose possibility be served high-performance PEMs direct cells. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.