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Int. J. Electroactive Mater. 4 (2016) 33-38

Characterization and Performance of Porous Chitosan Membrane for Proton Batteries

SITI SALWA ALIAS1, ZULKIFLI MOHAMAD ARIFF2, AHMAD AZMIN MOHAMAD1

1SCHOOL OF MATERIALS AND MINERAL RESOURCES ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA, NIBONG TEBAL, PULAU PINANG, Malaysia
2SCHOOL OF MATERIALS AND MINERAL RESOURCES ENGINEERING, UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA, NIBONG TEBAL, PULAU PINANG, Malaysia

*Email Address : skeleton_slothbufo2004@yahoo.com

Abstract : A porous chitosan membrane was prepared by using an ultrasonic mixed phase inversion and solution-cast method using silica as the porogent agent and sodium hydroxide solution as the porogent remover. The porous chitosan membrane was soaked in 5.0-M ammonium acetate electrolyte for 48 hours. Several functional groups shifted, and the existence of an NH3+ deformation peak (1540 cm-1) proved that interaction had taken place between the chitosan and ammonium acetate. A thermal analysis revealed that the porous chitosan membrane was suitable for use at room temperature and up to 60 °C. The tensile strength (1.2 MPa), modulus of elasticity (5.7 MPa) and elongation at break (14.5 %) met the minimum requirements for the use of membranes in batteries. The fabrication and comparison of the performance of two coin cell proton batteries combined in a series and connected to a green light emitting diode showed a correlation between the actual output voltage (2.6 V) and the simulation voltage (2.1 V). These results confirmed that the porous chitosan membrane had good properties and was suitable for use as a polymer electrolyte for proton batteries.

Keywords : Porous chitosan membrane,functional group,thermal,tensile,proton batteries,simulation