Preparation and Characterization of Nafion/Sulfonated SiO2 Molecular Sieve Composite Membranes

A Nafion/sulfonated SiO₂ molecular sieve composite membrane was prepared by solution casting with sulfonated SiO₂ molecular sieve as the modifier. The ATR/FT-IR results showed that sulfonated SiO₂ molecular sieve did not change the structure of the membrane. The SEM and XRD results showed that the molecular sieve was distributed uniformly in the membrane. The proton conductivity, methanol permeability, water content, and swelling degree were measured. Compared with Nafion membrane, the composite membrane had higher water content and proton conductivity and lower methanol permeability. The overall performance was the best when the content of sulfonated SiO₂ molecular sieve was 5 wt%. These results indicated that Nafion/sulfonated SiO₂ molecular sieve composite membranes would be excellent candidate membrane materials for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) applications.