sulfonated aromatic polymers and organically modified montmorillonite nanocomposite membranes for fuel cells applications

Aromatic polymers, such as sulfonated poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (sppo), sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (speek) and sulfonated poly(ether sulfone) (spes), at the optimum degrees of sulfonation (ds), are suggested and evaluated as alternatives to nafion for direct methanol fuel cells (dmfcs) applications. to reduce the methanol cross-over, which decreases the efficiency of the cell, organically modified montmorillonite nanoclays (ommt) were added at 1 wt% to the sulfonated matrices with the optimum ds. speek based nanocomposite membrane showed the highest maximum power density in comparison with nafion 117 and spes and sppo nanocomposite membranes, respectively. the results indicated that the nanocomposite membranes were promising pems for dmfc applications.