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Polymers
Special Issues
Functional Polymer Based Membranes for Energy Applications
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Functional Polymer Based Membranes for Energy Applications

A special issue of Polymers (ISSN 2073-4360). This special issue belongs to the section "Polymer Applications".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2020) | Viewed by 6321

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Alessandra Carbone

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute for Advanced Energy Technologies “Nicola Giordano”—CNR-ITAE, Via Salita S. Lucia sopra Contesse 5, 98126 Messina, Italy
Interests: polymers; functional groups; composites; ion conductivity; fuel cells; polymer electrolytes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Irene Gatto

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CNR Institute for Advanced Energy Technologies “Nicola Giordano”, ITAE, Messina, Italy
Interests: polymer electrolytes fuel cells; components development; electrochemistry; electrocatalysis; ionomers; fuel cells; polymer electrolytes
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Recently, research based on polymers development and modification has received significant importance, in particular for energy applications. Polymer synthesis aimed at the introduction of functional groups is assuming great relevance in the energy sector, both for energy storage and conversion devices. In particular, the insertion of ionic exchange groups based on cationic or anionic conduction is widely studied, and the related polymers are converted in membranes able to operate as a solid electrolyte.

This Special Issue covers recent research on functional polymers (synthesis, physicochemical properties, optical and electrochemical characterization) for electrochemical energy conversion and storage applications focused on, but not limited to, membrane separators, ion conducting membranes, and electrolyte additives in electrodes. The proposed topic involves energy applications based on redox flow batteries, fuel cells, electrolysers, supercapacitors, and dye-sensitized solar cells.

Dr. Alessandra Carbone
Dr. Irene Gatto
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Polymers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • functionalisation reactions
  • polyelectrolyte membranes
  • composite membranes
  • ionomers
  • fuel cells
  • electrolysers
  • redox-flow batteries
  • supercapacitors
  • dye-sensitized solar cells

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

24 pages, 5818 KiB  
Article
The Study of Plasticized Sodium Ion Conducting Polymer Blend Electrolyte Membranes Based on Chitosan/Dextran Biopolymers: Ion Transport, Structural, Morphological and Potential Stability
by Ahmad S.F.M. Asnawi, Shujahadeen B. Aziz, Iver Brevik, Mohamad A. Brza, Yuhanees M. Yusof, Saad M. Alshehri, Tansir Ahamad and M. F. Z. Kadir
Polymers 2021, 13(3), 383; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/polym13030383 - 26 Jan 2021
Cited by 36 | Viewed by 3094
Abstract
The polymer electrolyte system of chitosan/dextran-NaTf with various glycerol concentrations is prepared in this study. The electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) study shows that the addition of glycerol increases the ionic conductivity of the electrolyte at room temperature. The highest conducting plasticized electrolyte shows [...] Read more.
The polymer electrolyte system of chitosan/dextran-NaTf with various glycerol concentrations is prepared in this study. The electrical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) study shows that the addition of glycerol increases the ionic conductivity of the electrolyte at room temperature. The highest conducting plasticized electrolyte shows the maximum DC ionic conductivity of 6.10 × 10−5 S/cm. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) is used to investigate the effect of plasticizer on film morphology. The interaction between the electrolyte components is confirmed from the existence of the O–H, C–H, carboxamide, and amine groups. The XRD study is used to determine the degree of crystallinity. The transport parameters of number density (n), ionic mobility (µ), and diffusion coefficient (D) of ions are determined using the percentage of free ions, due to the asymmetric vibration (υas(SO3)) and symmetric vibration (υs(SO3)) bands. The dielectric property and relaxation time are proved the non-Debye behavior of the electrolyte system. This behavior model is further verified by the existence of the incomplete semicircle arc from the Argand plot. Transference numbers of ion (tion) and electron (te) for the highest conducting plasticized electrolyte are identified to be 0.988 and 0.012, respectively, confirming that the ions are the dominant charge carriers. The tion value are used to further examine the contribution of ions in the values of the diffusion coefficient and mobility of ions. Linear sweep voltammetry (LSV) shows the potential window for the electrolyte is 2.55 V, indicating it to be a promising electrolyte for application in electrochemical energy storage devices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Polymer Based Membranes for Energy Applications)
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12 pages, 2399 KiB  
Article
Anionic Exchange Membrane for Photo-Electrolysis Application
by Carmelo Lo Vecchio, Alessandra Carbone, Stefano Trocino, Irene Gatto, Assunta Patti, Vincenzo Baglio and Antonino Salvatore Aricò
Polymers 2020, 12(12), 2991; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/polym12122991 - 15 Dec 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2648
Abstract
Tandem photo-electro-chemical cells composed of an assembly of a solid electrolyte membrane and two low-cost photoelectrodes have been developed to generate green solar fuel from water-splitting. In this regard, an anion-exchange polymer–electrolyte membrane, able to separate H2 evolved at the photocathode from [...] Read more.
Tandem photo-electro-chemical cells composed of an assembly of a solid electrolyte membrane and two low-cost photoelectrodes have been developed to generate green solar fuel from water-splitting. In this regard, an anion-exchange polymer–electrolyte membrane, able to separate H2 evolved at the photocathode from O2 at the photoanode, was investigated in terms of ionic conductivity, corrosion mitigation, and light transmission for a tandem photo-electro-chemical configuration. The designed anionic membranes, based on polysulfone polymer, contained positive fixed functionalities on the side chains of the polymeric network, particularly quaternary ammonium species counterbalanced by hydroxide anions. The membrane was first investigated in alkaline solution, KOH or NaOH at different concentrations, to optimize the ion-exchange process. Exchange in 1M KOH solution provided high conversion of the groups, a high ion-exchange capacity (IEC) value of 1.59 meq/g and a hydroxide conductivity of 25 mS/cm at 60 °C for anionic membrane. Another important characteristic, verified for hydroxide membrane, was its transparency above 600 nm, thus making it a good candidate for tandem cell applications in which the illuminated photoanode absorbs the highest-energy photons (< 600 nm), and photocathode absorbs the lowest-energy photons. Furthermore, hydrogen crossover tests showed a permeation of H2 through the membrane of less than 0.1%. Finally, low-cost tandem photo-electro-chemical cells, formed by titanium-doped hematite and ionomer at the photoanode and cupric oxide and ionomer at the photocathode, separated by a solid membrane in OH form, were assembled to optimize the influence of ionomer-loading dispersion. Maximum enthalpy (1.7%), throughput (2.9%), and Gibbs energy efficiencies (1.3%) were reached by using n-propanol/ethanol (1:1 wt.) as solvent for ionomer dispersion and with a 25 µL cm−2 ionomer loading for both the photoanode and the photocathode. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Functional Polymer Based Membranes for Energy Applications)
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