“Evaporating”
Graphene Oxide Sheets
(GOSs) for Rolled up GOSs and Its Applications in Proton Exchange
Membrane Fuel Cell
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Abstract
In the present work, we prepare rolled up graphene oxide
sheets
(GOSs) by “evaporating” GOSs from their dispersion to
a remote aluminum foil surface. The topological structure of the rolled
up GOSs on the aluminum foil surface, which is determined by the quantity
of the formed Al<sup>3+</sup> ions from the reaction between the alumina
on the aluminum foil surface and the weak acidic condensed vapor of
the GOS dispersion, can be easily controlled via simply changing the
H<sub>2</sub>O content in the original GOS dispersion. Meanwhile,
a GO/Nafion composite membrane for proton exchange membrane fuel cell
is successfully prepared utilizing the as-obtained hole-like self-assembled
structure of the rolled-up GOSs as a supporting
material. The resultant composite membrane exhibits excellent
proton conductivity compared to that of the recast Nafion membrane,
especially under low-humidity conditions. An increase in proton conductivity
by several times could be easily observed here, which is mainly attributed
to the rearrangement of the microstructures of Nafion matrix to significantly
facilitate the proton transport with rolled up GOSs being independently
incorporated. The method reported here offers new degrees of freedom
to achieve such transformations among the allotropic forms of carbon
and/or develop new carbon material/polymer composite materials with
excellent properties