Contribution of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 in improving the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane for direct methanol fuel cell

Introducing ZIF-8 into the PES-cSMM membranes played a pivotal role in the development of proton-conducting pathways and an effective methanol barrier. We employed dry-wet phase inversion techniques to fabricate PES-cSMM, finding that a 3 wt% cSMM content yielded optimal results. The resulting PES-c...

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Main Authors: Junoh, Hazlina, Awang, Nuha, Ahmad, Siti Nur Afifi, Azhar, Masaud, Jaafar, Juhana, Md. Nordin, Nik Abdul Hadi, Ismail, Ahmad Fauzi, Qtaishat, Mohammed Rasool, Matsuura, Takeshi, Othman, Mohd. Hafiz Dzarfan, Abdul Rahman, Mukhlis, Mohd. Zainoodin, Azran
Format: Article
Published: Elsevier Inc. 2024
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Online Access:http://eprints.utm.my/108932/
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jssc.2023.124395
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Summary:Introducing ZIF-8 into the PES-cSMM membranes played a pivotal role in the development of proton-conducting pathways and an effective methanol barrier. We employed dry-wet phase inversion techniques to fabricate PES-cSMM, finding that a 3 wt% cSMM content yielded optimal results. The resulting PES-cSMM exhibits impressive performance, with a 38% higher selectivity and a 95% greater methanol barrier compared to Nafion® 117. The imidazole-N-H linker in the terminal PES-cSMM/ZIF-8 promotes proton transport through a hydrogen bond chain, while the hydrophobic backbone acts as an effective methanol filter. As a result, PES-cSMM/ZIF-8 boasts a 13-fold higher water uptake than Nafion® 117 and achieves a 99% improvement in methanol sieving performance, a highly promising breakthrough for DMFC systems. Proton conductivity for the PES-cSMM/ZIF-8 immersion membrane reaches 19.5 × 10-3 Scm-1, comparable to Nafion® 117, which is 20.4 × 10-3 Scm-1. The structural flexibility of ZIF-8 within PES-cSMM facilitates efficient proton conduction, while the ZIF-8 cage acts as a robust methanol barrier. Computational analysis revealed covalent bonding within the PES-cSMM system. We characterized the chemical interactions in PES-cSMM/ZIF-8 using topology analysis, specifically the Atom in Molecules/Non-covalent analysis (AIM/NCI) technique.