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Electrospun Hybrid Perfluorosulfonic Acid/Sulfonated Silica Composite Membranes

Electrospinning was employed to fabricate composite membranes containing perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) ionomer, poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) reinforcement and a sulfonated silica network, where the latter was incorporated either in the PFSA matrix or in the PVDF fibers. The best membrane, in ter...

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Autores principales: Santos, Leslie Dos, Powers, Devon, Wycisk, Ryszard, Pintauro, Peter N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7598158/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32977438
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes10100250
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author Santos, Leslie Dos
Powers, Devon
Wycisk, Ryszard
Pintauro, Peter N.
author_facet Santos, Leslie Dos
Powers, Devon
Wycisk, Ryszard
Pintauro, Peter N.
author_sort Santos, Leslie Dos
collection PubMed
description Electrospinning was employed to fabricate composite membranes containing perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) ionomer, poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) reinforcement and a sulfonated silica network, where the latter was incorporated either in the PFSA matrix or in the PVDF fibers. The best membrane, in terms of proton conductivity, was made by incorporating the sulfonated silica network in PFSA fibers (Type-A) while the lowest conductivity membrane was obtained when sulfonated silica was incorporated into the reinforcing PVDF fibers (Type-B). A Type-A membrane containing 65 wt.% PFSA with an embedded sulfonated silica network (at 15 wt.%) and with 20 wt.% PVDF reinforcing fibers proved superior to the pristine PFSA membrane in terms of both the proton conductivity in the 30–90% RH at 80 °C (a 25–35% increase) and lateral swelling (a 68% reduction). In addition, it was demonstrated that a Type-A membrane was superior to that of a neat 660 EW perfluoroimide acid (PFIA, from 3M Co.) films with respect to swelling and mechanical strength, while having a similar proton conductivity vs. relative humidity profile. This study demonstrates that an electrospun nanofiber composite membrane with a sulfonated silica network added to moderately low EW PFSA fibers is a viable alternative to an ultra-low EW fluorinated ionomer PEM, in terms of properties relevant to fuel cell applications.
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spelling pubmed-75981582020-10-31 Electrospun Hybrid Perfluorosulfonic Acid/Sulfonated Silica Composite Membranes Santos, Leslie Dos Powers, Devon Wycisk, Ryszard Pintauro, Peter N. Membranes (Basel) Article Electrospinning was employed to fabricate composite membranes containing perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) ionomer, poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) reinforcement and a sulfonated silica network, where the latter was incorporated either in the PFSA matrix or in the PVDF fibers. The best membrane, in terms of proton conductivity, was made by incorporating the sulfonated silica network in PFSA fibers (Type-A) while the lowest conductivity membrane was obtained when sulfonated silica was incorporated into the reinforcing PVDF fibers (Type-B). A Type-A membrane containing 65 wt.% PFSA with an embedded sulfonated silica network (at 15 wt.%) and with 20 wt.% PVDF reinforcing fibers proved superior to the pristine PFSA membrane in terms of both the proton conductivity in the 30–90% RH at 80 °C (a 25–35% increase) and lateral swelling (a 68% reduction). In addition, it was demonstrated that a Type-A membrane was superior to that of a neat 660 EW perfluoroimide acid (PFIA, from 3M Co.) films with respect to swelling and mechanical strength, while having a similar proton conductivity vs. relative humidity profile. This study demonstrates that an electrospun nanofiber composite membrane with a sulfonated silica network added to moderately low EW PFSA fibers is a viable alternative to an ultra-low EW fluorinated ionomer PEM, in terms of properties relevant to fuel cell applications. MDPI 2020-09-23 /pmc/articles/PMC7598158/ /pubmed/32977438 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes10100250 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Santos, Leslie Dos
Powers, Devon
Wycisk, Ryszard
Pintauro, Peter N.
Electrospun Hybrid Perfluorosulfonic Acid/Sulfonated Silica Composite Membranes
title Electrospun Hybrid Perfluorosulfonic Acid/Sulfonated Silica Composite Membranes
title_full Electrospun Hybrid Perfluorosulfonic Acid/Sulfonated Silica Composite Membranes
title_fullStr Electrospun Hybrid Perfluorosulfonic Acid/Sulfonated Silica Composite Membranes
title_full_unstemmed Electrospun Hybrid Perfluorosulfonic Acid/Sulfonated Silica Composite Membranes
title_short Electrospun Hybrid Perfluorosulfonic Acid/Sulfonated Silica Composite Membranes
title_sort electrospun hybrid perfluorosulfonic acid/sulfonated silica composite membranes
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7598158/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32977438
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/membranes10100250
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