ELECTROSPUN STRONTIUM CROSS-LINKED SULFONATED POLY (ETHER ETHER KETONE) SPEEK NANOFIBER FOR PROTON EXCHANGE MEMBRANE FUEL CELL

Strontium (Sr) cross-linked nanofibrous membranes of sulfonated polyether ether ketone (SPEEK) were successfully prepared using the electrospinning technique. Metal-polymer physical cross-linked has been proposed as a way to improve the mechanical and chemical stabilities of the electrospun SPEEK membrane which we found in this finding can help to reduced water uptake compared with the non-crosslinked membrane. Physical cross-linked of Sr-SPEEK membranes were fabricated by immersion process which were than electrospun into nanofibrous membranes. The morphologies of electrospun Sr-SPEEK membrane, fabricated under different concentrations of Sr were presented which show up to 6% concentration of Strontium was able to be electrospun. On the electrical properties of the electrospun membrane, conductivity for the sample with 6% Sr weight percentage has given 0.188 S/cm which is about 80% higher than the film cast Nafion-117 at 80˚C as cited before. This particular result is a hallmark of the studies as it shows that a combination of nanostructured with crosslink is proven to work in favor of producing proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) which performed much better than Nafion based membrane.