Pengaruh Penambahan Silika Carbon Nanotube dalam Membran sPEEK PVA terhadap Karakteristik Membran pada Sel Bahan Bakar Metanol

Recently, the efforts of finding proton exchange membrane (PEM) to replace Nafion membrane which is the important component in direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) has been done continuously. The aromatic polymer of polyether ether ketone (PEEK) had been developed because this polymer have good chemical, mechanical, and thermal stabilities. High proton conductivity, good mechanical stability, and low methanol permeability are desirable characteristic of the membranes. Composting polymers and/or addition inorganic material is strategies to improve characteristic of membranes. The addition of silica coated carbon nanotubes (SCNTs) would be capable to increase proton conductivity of sPEEK-PVA membrane. This research aims to study the characterization of PEEK membrane combined with PVA and varied silica carbon nanotubes (SCNTs) of 2,5-10% w/w. The experiment result showed that water uptake in the range of 30.7-57.7%, swelling degree in the range of 10-25%, ion exchange capacity (IEC) in the range of 0.48-0.59 meq/g, and methanol permeability in the range of 2.3-4.5 x 10-6 cm2/s. These prepared membranes exhibitted a promising performance even though further investigations should be taken into account