Authors
Randa E Khalifa, Asmaa M Abd El-Aziz, Mohamed Samir Mohy-Eldin, Andrew N Aziz, Mária Kováčová, Anna Vykydalová, Štefan Nagy, Zdenko Špitalský
Published in
RSC advances. Jul 07, 2026. Epub Jul 07, 2026.
Abstract
A low-cost proton-conductive composite membrane composed of cellulose acetate (CA)/poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) incorporating ZIF-8 (ZPHC) was fabricated via solution casting for direct methanol fuel cell applications. Structural and physicochemical characterization, including FTIR, XRD, TGA, SEM, EDX, BET, and AFM, confirms that the introduction of ZIF-8 increases porosity, amorphous character, water uptake, and hydrogen-bonding interactions, thereby reinforcing the polymer network. Proton conductivity rises sharply from 0.08 × 10-3 S cm-1 for the pristine CA to 2.73 × 10-3 S cm-1 upon ZIF-8 incorporation, while methanol permeability drops from 18 × 10-7 to 2.25 × 10-7 cm2 s-1, notably below that of Nafion® 117, as a standard (21.31 × 10-7 cm2 s-1). Mechanical strength is also enhanced, yielding more than a 2-fold improvement over neat CA. As a result, the composite exhibits markedly higher selectivity (10.31 × 103 S s cm-3) than both pristine CA (0.04 × 103 S s cm-3) and Nafion® 117 (6.43 × 103 S s cm-3). A single DMFC using the ZPHC40-2.5 membrane delivers a peak power density of ∼38 mW cm-2 and a current density of 126.5 mA cm-2 at 30 °C, indicating slightly lower maximum power than Nafion® 117 but promising fuel efficiency and durability for DMFC. The results demonstrate the feasibility of engineering an economically promising proton exchange membrane with potential applicability in DMFC systems.
PMID:
42416707
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 08 Jul 2026.
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