Effect of Zirconium Phosphate on Structural, Thermal, and Electrical Properties of Polyether Sulfone (PES) Membrane

Abstract

Fuel cell application in automobiles requires proton exchange membranes having low dependency on temperature and humidification. In view of this application, systematic and well-defined sulfonated polyether sulfone–zirconium phosphate composite membranes were prepared using zirconium phosphate as a proton-conducting filler by the sol-gel method. The thermal stability of the prepared composite membranes was analyzed by thermogravimetric analysis. Dynamic mechanical analysis was used to determine storage modulus and tanδ. The proton conductivity of the membranes was measured by impedance spectroscopy. Microscopy study was used to investigate the homogenous distributions of fillers in the composite membranes.

Keywords:

• atomic force microscope (AFM)
• dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA)
• proton conducting filler
• proton exchange membrane (PEM)
• zirconium phosphate