Hossein Beydaghi - Department of Chemistry, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Mehran Javanbakht - Department of Chemistry, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran Nano Science and Technology Research Center, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Hossein Salar Amoli - Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Iranian Research Organisation for Science and Technology, IROST, Tehran, Iran
Alireza Badiei - School of Chemistry, University College of Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

This method has been realized by preparing hybrid membranes containing SO3Hfunctionalized nanoporous Si-SBA-15 as hydrophilic inorganic modifier, glutaraldehyde, GLA, as cross-linking agent in a poly(vinyl alcohol), PVA, matrix. The different hybrid membranes are characterized concerning their thermal stability, water uptake, ATR and proton conductivity. Different PVA-based membranes (PVA, PVA:GLA, PVA:SBA-15 and PVA:GLA:SBA-15) were compared with each other. Compared with the pure PVA membrane, the hybrid membranes containing modified silica displayed lower thermal stability due to role of the modified silica particles as nucleation centers. In addition, the hybrid membranes showed lower water uptake but higher proton conductivity than the corresponding membranes without Si-SBA-15.

Hybrid membranes; Sulfonated nanoporous silica; Fuel cells; Poly(vinyl alcohol)