Design of Promising Green Cation-Exchange-Membranes-Based Sulfonated PVA and Doped with Nano Sulfated Zirconia for Direct Borohydride Fuel Cells

Marwa H Gouda; Noha A Elessawy; Sami A Al-Hussain; Arafat Toghan

doi:10.3390/polym13234205

Design of Promising Green Cation-Exchange-Membranes-Based Sulfonated PVA and Doped with Nano Sulfated Zirconia for Direct Borohydride Fuel Cells

Polymers (Basel). 2021 Nov 30;13(23):4205. doi: 10.3390/polym13234205.

Authors

Marwa H Gouda¹, Noha A Elessawy², Sami A Al-Hussain³, Arafat Toghan^{3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Polymer Materials Research Department, Advanced Technology and New Materials Research Institute (ATNMRI), City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications City (SRTA-City), Alexandria 21934, Egypt.
² Computer Based Engineering Applications Department, Informatics Research Institute IRI, City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications City (SRTA-City), Alexandria 21934, Egypt.
³ Chemistry Department, College of Science, Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU), Riyadh 11623, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, South Valley University, Qena 83523, Egypt.

Abstract

The direct borohydride fuel cell (DBFC) is a low-temperature fuel cell that requires the development of affordable price and efficient proton exchange membranes for commercial purposes. In this context, super-acidic sulfated zirconia (SO₄ZrO₂) was embedded into a cheap and environmentally friendly binary polymer blend, developed from poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and iota carrageenan (IC). The percentage of SO₄ZrO₂ ranged between 1 and 7.5 wt.% in the polymeric matrix. The study findings revealed that the composite membranes' physicochemical features improved by adding increasing amounts of SO₄ZrO₂. In addition, there was a decrease in the permeability and swelling ratio of the borohydride membranes as the SO₄ZrO₂ weight% increased. Interestingly, the power density increased to 76 mW cm^-2 at 150 mA cm^-2, with 7.5 wt.% SO₄ZrO_2, which is very close to that of Nafion117 (91 mW cm^-2). This apparent selectivity, combined with the low cost of the eco-friendly fabricated membranes, points out that DBFC has promising future applications.

Keywords: cation exchange membrane; direct borohydride fuel cell; iota carrageenan; poly(vinyl alcohol); sulfated zirconia.

Grants and funding

Research group no. RG-21- 09-78./Deanship of Scientific Research at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University, Saudi Arabia