Improved hydroxide conductivity and performance of nanocomposite membrane derived on quaternized polymers incorporated by titanium dioxide modified graphitic carbon nitride for fuel cells

Providence Buregeya Ingabire, Xueting Pan, Alphonse Haragirimana, Na Li, Zhaoxia Hu and Shouwen Chen

Renewable Energy, 2020, vol. 152, issue C, 590-600

Abstract: A series of quaternary aminated poly(arylene ether sulfone) (QPAES) nanocomposite membranes (QPAES-TiO2/g-C3N4) were fabricated by a double-component nanocomposite system of titanium dioxide/graphitic carbon nitride (TiO2/g-C3N4) and the polymer. TiO2 nanoparticles were firstly functionalized with the highly ion-conductive groups of g-C3N4 to synthesize TiO2/g-C3N4 nanocomposites. Their fundamental properties including water absorbing-swelling behavior, thermo-mechanical property, chemical stability, ion conductivity and fuel cell performance were investigated. The QPAES-TiO2/g-C3N4 membrane containing 0.45 wt% TiO2/g-C3N4 revealed considerable enhancements in ion conductivity, chemical stability and fuel cell performance. It absorbed water as high as 88.7% but expanded less than 13% in the membrane in-plane direction, and showed hydroxide conductivity of 43.8 mS/cm at 80 °C, besides, in a H2/O2 fuel cell, its maximum power density arrived at 64.3 mW/cm2 under a current density of 131.2 mA/cm2 at 80 °C. This work demonstrated that membrane with the proper content of TiO2/g-C3N4 nanocomposites could be a promising candidate for fuel cell applications.

Keywords: Titanium dioxide; Anion exchange membrane; Graphitic carbon nitride; Nanocomposite; Hydroxide conductivity; Quaternized polymers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148120300914
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:152:y:2020:i:c:p:590-600

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.01.072

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().