Composites membranes based on Nafion and PAMAM dendrimers for PEMFC applications

The aim of this work consists in to incorporate organic compounds as PAMAM (Polyamidoamine) dendrimers into the polymeric Nafion matrix to prepare composite membranes as a possible alternative to reduce methanol crossover effect. Composite Nafion membranes were prepared using a 3 wt% of Generation-4 hydroxyl-terminated PAMAM (G4OH) dendrimers containing 64-terminal OH-functional groups. The influence of PAMAM-(G4OH) dendrimer on chemicalephysical properties of the composite membrane was highlighted resulting in a reduction of the methanol permeability (1.05 106 cm2 s1) if compared to a recast bare Nafion membrane (8.19 106 cm2 s1), used as a reference. Good proton conductivity was also observed for PAMAM-(G4OH) composite membrane. The polarization curves carried out at 100 C in the presence of 2 M methanol have revealed the higher performance of the PAMAM-(G4OH) membrane when compared to a recast Nafion membrane.