• Membrane Journal
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.44-52
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• 2004

This paper concerns the development of a cationic polymeric membranes for direct methanol fuel cell. The crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) membranes with poly(acrylic acid-co-maleic acid) (PAM) and hydroquinonesulfonic acid (HQSA) as the crosslinking agents were prepared according to the amount of crosslinking agents. The resulting membranes were characterized in terms of methanol permeability, proton conductivity, water content and ion exchange capacity. The methanol permeability and proton conductivity increased with increasing PAM content up to 9 wt% and then decreased. This trend is considered the effect of the cross linking rather than the introduction of hydrophilic groups. When the HQSA contents were varied, no interesting increases of proton conductivity, water content and ion exchange capacity were found.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.255-261
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• 2002

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) membranes crosslinked with poly(acrylic acid-co-maleic anhydride) (PAM) as a polymeric crosslinking agent were prepared to investigate the pervaporation performance for the dehydration separation of aqueous ethanol solution. The characteristics of the resulting membranes crosslinked(x) were analysed by FT-IR and water swelling test. The water swelling decreased with increasing crosslinking agent content. The crosslinked PVA membranes with PAM showed lower water swelling than those of PVA membrane crosslinked with glutaraldehyde and modified PVA membrane. The swelling of water molecules in the crosslinked PVA membranes is more restricted by both chemical crosslinking between PVA and polymeric crosslinking agent chains and physical crosslinking by the entanglement between the PVA and polymeric crosslinking agent chains. For the pervaporation of aqueous ethanol solution through the crosslinked membrane, as the contents of crosslinking agent increased, the separation factor increased while the permeation flux decreased. The separation factor slightly decreased and permeation flux increased with increasing feed water content. As a result it could be considered that PVA-PAM membranes suppressed the plasticization effect even in the range of high water concentration in fled.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.23 no.4
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• pp.312-318
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• 2013

Poly vinylidene fluoride (PVDF) hollow fiber membranes were hydrophilized using polyethylenimine (PEI) and p-xylylene dichloride (XDC), and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and poly (acrylic acid -co- maleic acid) (PAM) mixed solutions by varying the concentration of PAM were coated onto PVDF membrane surface. The surface coating was verified by the observation of scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the permselective characteristcs of the resulting composite membranes were tested for 90 wt% aqueous ethanol solution by the pervaporation technique. The effects of the corsslinking agent concentraion, the temperature of feed solution, and the reaction temperature on the flux and separation factors were measured. Typically, the flux, $1,480g/m^2hr$ at the reaction temperature $100^{\circ}C$, PAM 3 wt%, feed temperature $70^{\circ}C$ was obtained, on the other hand, for the separation factor, ${\alpha}_{W/E}=82$ at the conditions of the reaction temperature $100^{\circ}C$, PAM 15 wt% and feed temperature $25^{\circ}C$ was shown.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.298-304
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• 2006

Blends of poly (acrylic acid-co-maleic acid)(PAM) with poly (vinyl alcohol)(PVA) were obtained by solution blending. The blends were solvent-on to a film to examine thermo-mechanical properties and gas permeability. The transition temperatures $(T_g\;and\;T_m)$ of the blends remained constant regardless of PAM contents. However, the values of enthalpy changes corresponding to melting transition $({\Delta}H_m)$ and initial degradation temperature $({T_D}^i)$ were decreased with increasing PAM content. The values of ultimate strength and initial modulus gave the maximum value at the 12 wt% PAM then decreased with further increase of PAM content up to 15 wt%. To measure the gas permeability of the PVA/PAM blend films, the PVA blend solutions were coated onto both biaxially oriented propylene (BOPP) and poly (ethylene terephthalate)(PET) films. The oxygen transmission rate $(O_2\;TR)$ permeability values mono- tonically decreased with increasing PAM content. However, moisture vapor transmission rate was not affected by PAM content.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.314-320
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• 2005

Crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) membranes were prepared at various crosslinking temperatures using poly(acrylic acid-co-maleic acid) (PAM) containing different PAM contents. The thermal properties of these PVA/PAM membranes prepared at various reaction temperatures were characterized using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The proton conductivity and methanol permeability of PVA/PAM membranes were then investigated as PAM content was varied from 3 to 13 wt%. It was found that the proton and methanol transport were dependent on PAM content in their function both as crosslinking agent and as donor of hydrophilic -COOH groups. Both these properties decreased monotonously with increasing PAM concentration. The proton conductivities of these PVA/PAM membranes were in the range from $10^{-3}\;to\;10^{-2}S/cm$ and the methanol permeabilities from $10^{-7}\;to\;10^{-6}cm^{2}/sec$. In addition, the effect of operating temperature up to $80^{\circ}C$ on ion conductivity was examined for three selected membranes: 7, 9 and 11 wt% PAM membranes. Ion conductivity increased with increasing operating temperature and showed and S/cm at $80^{\circ}C$, respectively. The effects of crosslinking and ionomer group concentration were also examined in terms of water content, ion exchange capacity (IEC), and fixed ion concentration. In addition, the number of water molecules per ionomer site was calculated using both water contents and IEC values. With overall consideration for all the properties measured in this study, $7{\sim}9\;wt%$ PAM membrane prepared at $140^{\circ}C$ exhibited the best performance. These characteristics of PVA/PAM membranes are desirable in applications related to the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC).

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.545-549
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• 2006

Blends of poly(acrylic acid- co-maleic acid) (PAM) with poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) were pre -pared in distilled water PVA/PAM/saponite (PVA/PAM/SPT) nanocomposite films were prepared with various clay contents by using the solution intercalation method. The variations of the dispersion, morphology, and thermo-mechanical properties of the nanocomposites with clay content in the range 0 to 9 wt% were examined. Up to 3 wt% clay loading, the clay particles were homogeneously dispersed in the PVA/PAM blends. However, some agglomerated structures form in the polymer matrix above a clay content of 7 wt%. The thermal stability of the hybrids was increased linearly with increasing the clay loading up to 9 wt%. The maximum strength and modulus were obtained at a clay content of 7 wt%. Thus, the addition of small amounts of clay to the PVA/PAM blends produced PVA/PAM nano-composites with improved the thermo-mechanical properties.

• Polymer(Korea)
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.45-51
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• 2010

This study focuses on the investigation of the possibility of the crosslinked poly (vinyl alcohol) membranes with both poly (acrylic acid-co-maleic acid) (PAM) and 3-(trihydroxysilyl)-1-propane-sulfonic acid (THS-PSA) for the direct methanol fuel cell application. In order to characterize the prepared membranes, the water content, the thermal gravimetric analysis, the ion exchange capacity, the ion conductivity and the methanol permeability measurements were carried out and then compared with the existing Nafion 115 membrane. The ion exchange capacity of the resulting membranes showed 1.6~1.8 meq./g membrane which was improved than Nafion 115, 0.91 meq./g membrane. In the case of the proton conductivity, the THS-PSA introduced membranes gave more excellent $0.042{\sim}0.056\;S{\cdot}cm^{-1}$ than Nafion 115, $0.024\;S{\cdot}cm^{-1}$. On the other hand, the methanol permeability was increased more than Nafion 115 for all the range of THA-PSA concentration.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.101-113
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• 2016

In this study, to improve the water flux of porous hydrophobic membranes, various water-soluble polymers including neutral, cationic and anionic polymers were adsorbed using 'salting-out' method. The adsorbed hydrophobic membrane surfaces were characterized mainly via the measurements of contact angles and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images. To enhance the durability of the modified membranes, the water-soluble polymers such poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) were crosslinked with glutaraldehyde (GA) and found to be resistant for more than 2 months in vigorously stirred water. The water flux was much more increased when the ionic polymers used as the coating materials rather than the neutral polymer and in this case, about 70% of $0.31L/m^2{\cdot}h$ (LMH) to 0.50 LMH was increased when 300 mg/L of polyacrylamide (PAAm) was used as the coating agents. Among the cationic coating polymers such as poly(styrene sulfonic acid-co-maleic acid) (PSSA_MA), poly(acrylic acid-comaleic acid) (PAM) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA), PSSA_MA was found to be the best in terms of contact angle and water flux. In the case of PSSA_MA, the water flux was enhanced about 80%. The low concentration of the coating solution was better to hydrophilize while the high concentration inclined to block the pores on the membrane surfaces. The best coating condition was found: (1) coating concentration 150 to 300 mg/L, (2) ionic strength 0.15, (3) coating time 20 min.

• Macromolecular Research
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.135-140
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• 2005

Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) membranes crosslinked with poly(acrylic acid-co-maleic acid) (PAM) were prepared to investigate the effect of aging on their morphology by swelling them for up to 7 days. PAM was used both as a crosslinking agent and as a donor of the hydrophilic-COOH group. A $30 wt\%$ weight loss of the dry membrane was observed in the swelling test after 6 days. The surface of the membrane was dramatically changed after the swelling test. The surface roughness of the PVA/PAM membrane was increased, as determined by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The swelling loosened the polymer structure, due to the release of the unreacted polymer and the decomposition of the ester bond, thereby resulting in an increase in the free volume capable of containing water molecules. The water molecules present in the form of free water were determined by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The fraction of free water increased with increasing swelling time. The swelling of the membrane may provide space for the transport of protons and increase the mobility of the protonic charge carriers. The proton conductivity of the membranes measured at T= 30 and $50^{\circ}C$ was in the range of $10^{-3} to 10^{-2} S/cm$, and slightly increased with increasing swelling time and temperature.

• Proceedings of the Membrane Society of Korea Conference
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• 2004.05b
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• pp.195-198
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• 2004

In our previous study, the crosslinked PVA/PAM membrane was prepared to investigate the pervaporation performance, and analyzed by FT-IR and water swelling test. This main objective of this work was to investigate the aging effect of PVA/PAM membrane with swelling time.(omitted)