Utilization of Water-Insoluble Carbon Nitride-Phosphotungstic Acid Hybrids in Composite Proton Exchange Membranes

• Published in: Membranes (Basel) Vol. 14; no. 9; p. 195
• Main Authors: Yuan, Xiancan, Lu, Zhongrui, Jia, Xiaoyang, Yang, Zhuoran, Wang, Jian, Wang, Xiong, Lin, Jun, He, Shaojian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 13.09.2024; MDPI
• Subjects: Carbon; Carbon nitride; China; Conductivity; Fourier transforms; Fuel cell industry; Fuel cells; Graphene; Hybrids; Mechanical properties; Membranes; Morphology; Nanocomposites; Nitrides; Phenolphthalein; Phosphates; phosphotungstic acid; Polyether ether ketones; proton exchange membrane; Protons; Room temperature; Sintering; Spectrum analysis; sulfonated polyether ether ketone; Sulfuric acid; Tungsten compounds; Water; Water use; China; Beijing China; United States > US; proton exchange membrane; carbon nitride; phosphotungstic acid; sintering; sulfonated polyether ether ketone
• ISSN: 2077-0375; 2077-0375
• DOI: 10.3390/membranes14090195

Phosphotungstic acid (HPW) can retain water in proton exchange membranes to increase proton conductivity; however, its water-soluble nature limits further application. In this work, we combined HPW and graphitic carbon nitride (g-C N ) via sintering to prepare water-insoluble hybrids (HWN), where HPW was chemically linked to g-C N to fix HPW. Then, HWN fillers were added to a sulfonated polyether ether ketone (SPEEK) matrix to prepare composite membranes. The conductivity of the composite membrane with 10 wt% HWN is up to 0.066 S cm at room temperature, which is 53% higher than that of the SPEEK control membrane (0.043 S cm ). The composite membrane also showed stable proton conductivity after being immersed in water for 2000 h. Therefore, our study demonstrates that preparing water-insoluble nanofillers containing HPW components through sintering is a promising approach.