Effects of Amount of Glutaraldehyde on Behavior of Electrospun PVA/TiO2 Membrane for DEFC Applications

Nano-composite polymer membranes based on poly(vinyl alcohol)/ titanium oxide (PVA/TiO2) were prepared by electrospinning technique. Electrospinning is an efficient method for fabricating polymer membranes which are made up of ultrafine fibers with diameters in the range of few nanometers to sub- micrometers[1]. Glutaraldehyde (GA) was used as a cross-linking agent in order to improve chemical, thermal and dimentional stabilities. The properties of crosslinked electrospun membranes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), calculation of water uptake (WU) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The changes of ionic conductivities of membranes crosslinked with different amounts of GA were inspected by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) method, when the membranes were placed in various alkaline solutions for 24 h. According to obtained results, these nanofibrous membranes are promising anion exchange polymer electrolytes for direct ethanol fuel cell (DEFC) applications.

Keywords:

Direct Ethanol Fuel Cell , PVA/TiO2 anion exchange membrane , electrospinning , EIS method