%0 journal article
%@ 0149-6395
%A Silva, V., Silva, V.B., Mendes, A., Madeira, L., Silva, H., Michaelmann, J., Ruffmann, B., Pereira Nunes, S.

%D 2007
%J Separation Science and Technology
%N SI 13
%P 2909-2925 
%R doi:10.1080/01496390701558342
%T Pre-treatment Effect on the Sulfonated Poly(ether ether ketone) Membrane Transport Properties and Direct Methanol Fuel Cell Performance
%U https://doi.org/10.1080/01496390701558342
SI 13 
%X In this paper a critical study is presented on how the direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) membrane properties are affected by a pre-treatment. Membranes based on sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (sPEEK) with sulfonation degree (SD) of 42% were used, plain and modified inorganically with 1 wt.% of zirconium oxide. Nafion® 1135 was used as reference. The results obtained show that the sPEEK polymer (SD=42%) enables the preparation of proton exchange membranes with improved properties compared to Nafion® and to the ZrO2-modified sPEEK membrane, mainly due to its improved relation between proton conductivity and methanol permeation. After the pre-treatment, the plain sPEEK membrane had a performance 6.4 times higher in terms of maximum power output when used in the DMFC.