Enhanced Proton Conductivity and Methanol Permeability Reduction via Sodium Alginate Electrolyte-Sulfonated Graphene Oxide Bio-membrane

The high methanol crossover and high cost of Nafion® membrane are the major challenges for direct methanol fuel cell application. With the aim of solving these problems, a non-Nafion polymer electrolyte membrane with low methanol permeability and high proton conductivity based on the sodium alginate (SA) polymer as the matrix and sulfonated graphene oxide (SGO) as an inorganic filler (0.02-0.2 wt%) was prepared by a simple solution casting technique. The strong electrostatic attraction between -SO3H of SGO and the sodium alginate polymer increased the mechanical stability, optimized the water absorption and thus inhibited the methanol crossover in the membrane. The optimum properties and performances were presented by the SA/SGO membrane with a loading of 0.2 wt% SGO, which gave a proton conductivity of 13.2 × 10-3 Scm-1, and the methanol permeability was 1.535 × 10-7 cm2 s-1 at 25 °C, far below that of Nafion (25.1 × 10-7 cm2 s-1) at 25 °C. The mechanical properties of the sodium alginate polymer in terms of tensile strength and elongation at break were improved by the addition of SGO.