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Published on: August 16, 2018
Suppression of Methanol and Formate Crossover through Sulfanilic-Functionalized Holey Graphene as Proton Exchange
Samuel Jeong1, Tatsuhiko Ohto2,3, Tomohiko Nishiuchi4
1Institute of Applied Physics, Graduate School of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennodai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8571, Japan.
Abstract:
Proton exchange membranes with high proton conductivity and low crossover of fuel molecules are required to realize advanced fuel-cell technology. The selective transportation of protons, which occurs by blocking the transportation of fuel molecules across a proton exchange membrane, is crucial to suppress crossover while maintaining a high proton conductivity. In this study, a simple yet powerful method is proposed for optimizing the crossover-conductivity relationship by pasting sulfanilic-functionalized holey graphenes onto a Nafion membrane. The results show that the sulfanilic-functionalized holey graphenes supported by the membrane suppresses the crossover by 89% in methanol and 80% in formate compared with that in the self-assembled Nafion membrane; an ≈60% reduction is observed in the proton conductivity. This method exhibits the potential for application in advanced fuel cells that use methanol and formic acid as chemical fuels to achieve high energy efficiency.
