• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.44 no.2
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• pp.187-192
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• 2006

The preparation and characterization of new polymer composite membranes containing polyphenylene oxide (PPO) thin films with hetropoly acid (HPA) are presented. PPO thin films with phosphotungstic acid (PWA) or phosphomolybdic acid (PMA) have been prepared by using the solvent mixture. The PWA and PPO can be blended using the solvent mixture, because PPO and PWA are not soluble in the same solvent. In this study, methanol was used as a solvent dissolving PWA and chloroform was used as a solvent dissolving PPO. PPO-PWA solutions were cast onto a glass plate with uniform thickness. The composite membranes were prepared by casting Nafion mixture on porous PPO-PWA films. The morphology and structure of these PPO-PWA films were observed with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The composite membranes were characterized by measuring their ion conductivity and methanol permeability. The performance was evaluated with composite membranes as electrolytes in fuel cell conditions. The methanol cross-over of composite membranes containing PPO-PWA barrier films in the DMFC reduced by 66％.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.877-887
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• 1996

The ideal membranes for membrane-covered oxygen probes system should be selectively permeable for oxygen and chemically inert, and have good mechanical strength. Polysulfone(PSf) was selected to develop the membrane for membrane-covered oxygen electrodes system. PSf membranes have properties such as good reproducibility, good mechanical strength, chemical inertness, and high heat resistance. PSf membranes were cast from polymer solution on the glass plate at constant temperature, and casting solvents used were tetrahydrofuran(THF), methylene chloride, and N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone(NMP). Tricresyl phosphate(TCP) as plasicizer was added to PSf to increase the softness of membrane. The permeation characteristics were observed for pure oxygen and nitrogen through pure PSf membranes by variable volume method and membrane-covered electrode system. The permeability coefficients of oxygen and nitrogen measured by variable volume method were slightly decreased with increasing of upstream pressure. The permeation properties of PSf membrane using methylene choride as casting solvent were not affected by the PSf amount of polymer solution. The permeability coefficients of oxygen and nitrogen for PSf membrane containing TCP were very slightly lower than those for pure PSf membrane, but ideal separation factors were slightly higher. The flexibility of PSf membrane containing 2wt% TCP was better than that of pure PSf membrane. It was expected that this increase in flexibility would solve the difficulty of fixing the membrane to the cathode. The membrane-covered oxygen probes system was composed of anode, cathode and electrolyte. The type of the anode was Ag/AgCl half-cell, that of cathode was Ag, and the electrolyte was 4N KCl solution. The result of sampled current voltametry for PSf membrane showed the plateu region at -0.3V~-1.0V. The correlation coefficient of oxygen partial pressure versus current for PSf membrane was relatively high, 0.99949. It was concluded that PSf membrane was the good candidate for the membrane-covered oxygen probes system.