Issue 2, 2019

A bismuth oxide/graphene oxide nanocomposite membrane showing super proton conductivity and low methanol permeability

Abstract

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells are still limited as state-of-art proton exchange membranes perform poorly at high and low temperature and are easily damaged by harsh electrochemical conditions such as reactive peroxide species. One effective solution to this issue is to develop new types of proton conductive materials that are capable of working in a broad temperature range. A simple vacuum-assisted filtration method is employed to obtain a well-ordered new proton-conducting membrane by immobilizing nanosized bismuth oxide clusters [H6Bi12O16] (NO3)10·6(H2O) {H6Bi12O16} onto graphene oxide (GO) supports (named as {H6Bi12O16}/GO). {H6Bi12O16}/GO is stable in acidic media and has high proton conductivity over the temperature range from −40 to 80 °C. The proton conductivity of the {H6Bi12O16}/GO membrane is 0.564 S cm−1 at 80 °C in aqueous solution (in plane), and 0.1 S cm−1 at 80 °C and 97% RH (out of plane), respectively. Without loss of high proton conductivity, the membrane also exhibited 100-fold lower methanol permeability than a Nafion 117 membrane. Moreover, {H6Bi12O16}/GO displayed good catalytic decomposition of hydrogen peroxide and superior humidity response and recovery properties. These advantages mean that {H6Bi12O16}/GO holds great promise as a solid-state electrolyte that can potentially be applied in energy conversion devices in the future.

Graphical abstract: A bismuth oxide/graphene oxide nanocomposite membrane showing super proton conductivity and low methanol permeability

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
21 Aug 2018
Accepted
15 Oct 2018
First published
17 Oct 2018
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Chem. Sci., 2019,10, 556-563

A bismuth oxide/graphene oxide nanocomposite membrane showing super proton conductivity and low methanol permeability

B. Liu, D. Cheng, H. Zhu, J. Du, K. Li, H. Zang, H. Tan, Y. Wang, W. Xing and Y. Li, Chem. Sci., 2019, 10, 556 DOI: 10.1039/C8SC03726D

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