PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF NAFION COMPOSITE MEMBRANES CONTAINING MICRO AND NANOCRYSTALLINE CELLULOSE FOR DIRECT METHANOL FUEL CELL APPLICATIONS

This work demonstrated the use of a microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and a nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC) reinforced with Nafion (NF) composite membrane for direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC). The study compared membranes properties of MCC/NF composite membrane and NCC/NF composite membrane with recasted NF membrane by ex-situ test. The result of SEM/EDS with elemental mapping showed that NCC dispersion within the membrane was better than that of MCC. The water uptake result showed that NCC/NF composite membrane was higher than that of MCC/NF membrane. The solubility property of NCC/NF composite membrane was better than that of MCC/NF membrane (both composite membranes were less than 5% solubility). It was found that ion exchange capacity of recasted NF membrane was higher than both composite membranes but chemical degradation of both composite membranes was lower than that of recasted NF membrane. For MeOH permeability, it was found that adding cellulose on NF reduced MeOH crossover for both composite membranes and MCC/NF composite membrane had the lowest MeOH permeability among all.