Highly Conductive Polyelectrolyte Membranes Poly(vinyl alcohol)/Poly(2-acrylamido-2-methyl propane sulfonic acid) (PVA/PAMPS) for Fuel Cell Application

M A Abu-Saied; Emad Ali Soliman; Khamael M Abualnaj; Eman El Desouky

doi:10.3390/polym13162638

Highly Conductive Polyelectrolyte Membranes Poly(vinyl alcohol)/Poly(2-acrylamido-2-methyl propane sulfonic acid) (PVA/PAMPS) for Fuel Cell Application

Polymers (Basel). 2021 Aug 8;13(16):2638. doi: 10.3390/polym13162638.

Authors

M A Abu-Saied¹, Emad Ali Soliman¹, Khamael M Abualnaj², Eman El Desouky³

Affiliations

¹ Polymeric Materials Research Department, Advanced Technology and New Materials Research Institute, City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications (SRTA-CITY), New Borg El-Arab City, Alexandria 21934, Egypt.
² Department of Chemistry, College of Science, Taif University, P.O. Box 11099, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia.
³ Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21568, Egypt.

Abstract

In this study, chemically cross-linked PVA/PAMPS membranes have been prepared to be used in direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). The structural properties of the resultant membrane were characterized by use FTIR and SEM. Additionally, their thermal stability was assessed using TGA. Moreover, the mechanical properties and methanol and water uptake of membrane was studied. The obtained FTIR of PVA/PAMPS membranes revealed a noticeable increase in the intensity of adsorption peaks appearing at 1062 and 1220 cm^-1, which correspond to sulfonic groups with the increasing proportion of PAMPS. The thermograms of these polyelectrolyte membranes showed that their thermal stability was lower than that of PVA membrane, and total weight loss gradually decreased with increasing the PAMPS. Additionally, the functional properties and efficiency of these polyelectrolyte membranes were significantly improved with increasing PAMPS proportion in these blends. The IEC of polymer blend membrane prepared using PVA/PAMPS ratio of 1:1 was 2.64 meq/g. The same membrane recorded also a methanol permeability coefficient of 2.5 × 10^-8 cm²/s and thus, its efficiency factor was 4 × 10⁵ greater than that previously reported for the commercial polyelectrolyte membrane, Nafion^® (2.6 × 10⁵). No significant increase in this efficiency factor was observed with a further amount of PAMPS. These results proved that the PVA:PAMPS ratio of 1:1 represents the optimum mass ratio to develop the cost-effective and efficient PVA/PAMPS blend membranes for DMFCs applications.

Keywords: DMFCs; PAMPS; PEM; PVA.