Chitosan-Poly (Vinyl Alcohol) and Calcium Oxide Composite Membrane for Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Applications

Direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) has been reported as a promising power source especially polymer electrolytes membrane (PEM) using perflurosonic acid membrane or Nafion® (Du Pont). However the large-scale utilization of Nafion® in DMFC causes some issues such as low power density which is due to methanol crossover and dehydration at high temperature. In this work, new PEM composite membrane comprises of chitosan, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and calcium oxide (CaO) were fabricated. Our focus was to study the effect of CaO particle addition into chitosan-PVA conductivity and the feasibility of these membranes for DMFC application also was carried out. CaO particles have the profound effect on the chitosan-PVA conductivity. Fabricated membranes have moderate conductivity and lower methanol permeability compare to Nafion115®. These results indicate that chitosan-PVA-CaO composite membrane have excellent methanol barrier properties therefore feasible for DMFC applications.