Preparation and characterization of electrospun graphene oxide/polyethersulfone composite ion exchange membrane

Abstract

Amidst globally fuel depletion and environmental pollution problems, the need for sustainable eco-friendly energy development is increasing. Several membrane-based energy generation and storage systems, such as reverse electrodialysis (RED), fuel cell (FC), and redox flow battery (RFB) are in the research and industrial interests due to less environmental footprints and numerous potential. The key factor for success of those processes is ion exchange membranes (IEMs) and they must have low areal resistance and high permselectivity. In this study, for those objectives, nanofibers were fabricated, based on polyethersulfone (PES), graphene oxide (GO) was added in an amount of 0.5, 1, 3, 5 wt%, respectively, by electrospinning. Then, IEMs were prepared by pore-filling on the nanofiber structure. As a result, 1 wt% GO/PES nanofiber shows better water contact angle as 10°, and 39.9 J/m3 toughness that 10 times better than pristine PES nanofiber. Then, pore-filled GO/PES composite membrane shows 85.75% permselectivity that 13% better and 3.7 Ω cm2 areal resistance that 4 times lower than recasted Nafion membrane with same thickness.