Preparation And Characterization of a New Proton-Exchange Membrane On The Basis of The Modification of Sulfonated Polystyrene With MIL-53 (Al)-NH2 For Applying in The Direct-Methanol Fuel Cell

Abstract On the basis of the sulfonated polystyrene, a new proton-exchange membrane was prepared in this study. In order to be applied in the direct-methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), the modification of sulfonated polystyrene was conducted by MIL-53(Al)-NH2. Membranes were fabricated using sulfonated polystyrene, polyethylene, and different amounts of MIL-53(Al)-NH2, then they were briefly illustrated by SPS-PE-MIL-53. The membranes were characterized using the FT-IR, SEM, and TGA. The proton conductance, water uptake, oxidative resistance, ionic conductance, and the permeability of methanol were measured to assess its performance in a DMFC with a cation-exchange membrane. The SPS-PE-MIL-53 (1:1:0.25 w:w:w) membrane showed relatively better performance than the other membranes. The selectivity factor for this membrane was 7.17 × 104 S.s.cm-3. To assess the performance, the fabricated membranes were used in a fuel cell. All membranes fabricated in the fuel cell performed well, but the SPS-PE-MIL-53 (1:1:0.25 w:w:w) membrane performed better than the other membranes. DMFC on the basis of SPS-PE-MIL-53 (1:1:0.25 w:w:w) membrane had a maximum peak power density of 17.04 mAcm-2 with a maximum current density of 115.38 mAcm-2. In general, the prepared membranes performed well than similar membranes.