%0 Journal Article %A Junoh, H. %A Awang, N. %A Ahmad, S.N.A. %A Azhar, M. %A Jaafar, J. %A Nordin, N.A.H.M. %A Ismail, A.F. %A Qtaishat, M.R. %A Matsuura, T. %A Othman, M.H.D. %A Rahman, M.A. %A Zainoodin, A.M. %D 2024 %F scholars:20277 %J Journal of Solid State Chemistry %K Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC); Hydrogen bonds; Methanol; Methanol fuels; Polyelectrolytes; Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC), Direct-methanol fuel cells; Methanol barriers; Methanol permeability; Nafion 117; PEM; Performance; Polymer electrolyte membranes; Porous membranes; Proton conducting; Zeolitic imidazolate framework-8, Proton conductivity %R 10.1016/j.jssc.2023.124395 %T Contribution of zeolitic imidazolate framework-8 in improving the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane for direct methanol fuel cell %U https://khub.utp.edu.my/scholars/20277/ %V 329 %X Introducing ZIF-8 into the PES-cSMM membranes played a pivotal role in the development of proton-conducting pathways and an effective methanol barrier. We employed dry-wet phase inversion techniques to fabricate PES-cSMM, finding that a 3 wt cSMM content yielded optimal results. The resulting PES-cSMM exhibits impressive performance, with a 38 higher selectivity and a 95 greater methanol barrier compared to Nafion® 117. The imidazole-N-H linker in the terminal PES-cSMM/ZIF-8 promotes proton transport through a hydrogen bond chain, while the hydrophobic backbone acts as an effective methanol filter. As a result, PES-cSMM/ZIF-8 boasts a 13-fold higher water uptake than Nafion® 117 and achieves a 99 improvement in methanol sieving performance, a highly promising breakthrough for DMFC systems. Proton conductivity for the PES-cSMM/ZIF-8 immersion membrane reaches 19.5 � 10-3 Scm-1, comparable to Nafion® 117, which is 20.4 � 10-3 Scm-1. The structural flexibility of ZIF-8 within PES-cSMM facilitates efficient proton conduction, while the ZIF-8 cage acts as a robust methanol barrier. Computational analysis revealed covalent bonding within the PES-cSMM system. We characterized the chemical interactions in PES-cSMM/ZIF-8 using topology analysis, specifically the Atom in Molecules/Non-covalent analysis (AIM/NCI) technique. © 2023 Elsevier Inc. %Z cited By 1