Browsing by Author "Tokumasu, Takashi"

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Citation - WoS: 4
Citation - Scopus: 4
Mesoscale Morphologies of Nafion-Based Blend Membranes by Dissipative Particle Dynamics
(MDPI, 2021) Sen, Unal; Ozdemir, Mehmet; Erkartal, Mustafa; Kaya, Alaattin Metin; Manda, Abdullah A.; Oveisi, Ali Reza; Tokumasu, Takashi
Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) composed of polymer or polymer blend is a vital element in PEM fuel cell that allows proton transport and serves as a barrier between fuel and oxygen. Understanding the microscopic phase behavior in polymer blends is very crucial to design alternative cost-effective proton-conducting materials. In this study, the mesoscale morphologies of Nafion/poly(1-vinyl-1,2,4-triazole) (Nafion-PVTri) and Nafion/poly(vinyl phosphonic acid) (Nafion-PVPA) blend membranes were studied by dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulation technique. Simulation results indicate that both blend membranes can form a phase-separated microstructure due to the different hydrophobic and hydrophilic character of different polymer chains and different segments in the same polymer chain. There is a strong, attractive interaction between the phosphonic acid and sulfonic acid groups and a very strong repulsive interaction between the fluorinated and phosphonic acid groups in the Nafion-PVPA blend membrane. By increasing the PVPA content in the blend membrane, the PVPA clusters' size gradually increases and forms a continuous phase. On the other hand, repulsive interaction between fluorinated and triazole units in the Nafion-PVTri blend is not very strong compared to the Nafion-PVPA blend, which results in different phase behavior in Nafion-PVTri blend membrane. This relatively lower repulsive interaction causes Nafion-PVTri blend membrane to have non-continuous phases regardless of the composition.
Citation - WoS: 24
Citation - Scopus: 24
Proton-Conducting Blend Membranes of Nafion/Poly(Vinylphosphonic Acid) for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells
(Springer, 2013) Sen, Unal; Acar, Oktay; Celik, Sevim Unugur; Bozkurt, Ayhan; Ata, Ali; Tokumasu, Takashi; Miyamoto, Akira
Nafion/poly(vinylphosphonic acid) blends were synthesized and characterized in this work. Poly(vinylphosphonic acid), PVPA, was synthesized by the free-radical polymerization of vinylphosphonic acid. Then Nafion/PVPA blend membranes were prepared by means of film casting from Nafion/PVPA solutions with several molar ratios of PVPA repeat unit to - SO3H. Homogeneous Nafion/PVPA films were produced. Nafion-PVPA interactions were studied by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. Thermal properties were investigated via thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The TGA results illustrated that all of these Nafion/PVPA electrolytes are thermally stable up to 400 degrees C. The membrane properties were further characterized by studying their morphologies using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The proton conductivity of the Nafion/P(VPA)(3) blend membrane was 1.1x10(-5) S/cm in an anhydrous state at 130 degrees C. The conductivities of the blends increased by at least three orders of magnitude upon hydration, exceeding 10(-2) S/cm with RH=50 % at ambient temperature.