Influence of Silica Content in Crosslinked PVA/PSSA_MA/Silica Hybrid Membrane for Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC) = Influence of Silica Content in Crosslinked PVA/PSSA_MA/Silica Hybrid Membrane for Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC)

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In the present study, crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) membranes were prepared at different temperatures using poly(styrene sulfonic acid-co-maleic acid) (PSSA_MA) (PVA:PSSA_MA = 1:9). The hybrid mem-branes were prepared by varying the TEOS content between 5 and 30 wt%. The PSSA_MA was used both as a crosslinking agent and the hydrophilic group donor ($-SO_3H$ and/or-COOH). The proton conductivity increased with up to 20 wt% TEOS, but decreased above this level, although the water content decreased with increasing TEOS content. This result suggests that the silica doped into the membrane improved the formation of proton-conduction pathways due to the absorption of molecular water. The PVA/PSSA_MA/Silica containing TEOS 20% showed both high proton conductivity (0.026 S/cm at $90^{\circ}C$) and low methanol permeability ($5.55{\times}10^{-7}cm^2/s$).