Polymer Electrolyte Membrane-based Chitosan-Vanillin/Polyethylene Glycol for Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Applications

Abstract

The preparation process of chitosan consists of three steps, namely deproteinization, demineralization, and deacetylation. Furthermore, chitosan modification was carried out using vanillin to produce good interactions in the membrane composite structure. Chitosan-Vanillin/Polyethylene glycol (CS-V/PEG) membranes were successfully fabricated by phase inversion technique for variations of 5, 10, 15 and 20 (wt. %). Analysis of membrane performance was carried out by testing water and methanol uptake, ion exchange capacity and methanol permeability. The results of water uptake analysis showed the highest value in CS-V/PEG 20 (47.90%), while the lowest methanol uptake was 17.80% showed by CS-V/PEG 5. In addition, the best value of ion exchange capacity and methanol permeability was obtained in CS-V/PEG 10 and CS-V/PEG 20 with values of 2.60 mmol/gram and 0.32 x 10-5 cm2/s, respectively. All membrane test results obtained indicate that the chitosan-vanillin/polyethylene glycol composite membrane has a promising potential for direct methanol fuel cell applications.