The effect of excessive amount of nanosized silica on the performance of Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM)

Abstract

Till now, many researchers have been synthesized various types organic/inorganic composite membrane. Their membrane have been achieved to high performance such as high mechanical stability, chemical stability, proper water uptake, high proton conductivity, low methanol permeability. However, due to dispersion problem of inorganic material on organic matrix, these studies have been performed with low silica content. In our lab, using surfactant, dispersion problem of composite membrane was successfully solved. In this study, using surfactant, PEM with excessive amount of silica was fabricated in order to obtain high performance. we used sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone)(SPAES) as polymer matrix and introduced nano fumed silica into polymer matrix.