Effect of alkali doping on alkaline stability and cell performance of Quaternization polyvinyl alcohol/graphene oxide membranes for passive DEFCs

Abstract Alkaline stability of anion exchange membrane (AEM) is a crucial property to produce an effective performance in alkaline passive direct ethanol fuel cells (DEFCs). In theory, a high concentration of alkaline will be obtained high performance in alkaline DEFCs. However, producing high alkaline stability of AEM is very hard due to the degradation phenomenon of the functional group within the polymeric structure. In this study, Quaternized polyvinyl alcohol/graphene oxide (QPVA/GO) membrane is utilized for alkaline stability evaluation. The resulting QPVA/GO membrane with 15 wt.% of GO loading presented a good characterization with excellent alkaline stability and performed well in passive DEFCs. A maximum power density with 4M of alkaline doped QPVA/GO membrane was obtained 16.88 mW cm-2 and successfully sustained the durability test in 1000 hours at ambient condition. Thus, these membrane properties are promising for an alkaline system of fuel cells.