Enhanced Proton Conductivity of Chitosan/Functionalized Graphene-Oxide Nancomposite Membranes: Theory and Experiment

The effects of pristine and sulfonated graphene oxide nanoparticles (GO and SGO, respectively) on the proton conductivity of a chitosan/chitosan sulfate (Ch/Chs) blend membrane were investigated. The results showed that SGO containing membranes had the highest proton conductivity values among the prepared samples. Also, the methanol permeability of blending membranes containing SGO nanosheets was lower than that of the membranes containing GO nanoparticles. According to the selectivity parameters, Ch/Chs/5SGO membrane would be the most promising candidate for DMFC applications. Finally, the experimental results were compared with the prediction from a recently developed model for investigation of proton conductivity

Keywords:

Chitosan , graphene oxide , proton conductivity , modeling