| Description |
This thesis describes the development of novel silica and hybrid nanoporous membranes. Nanoporous membranes are widely used in various applications. This thesis focuses on their potential applications in the energy area, such as fuel cells and lithium batteries, and in separations and ultrafiltration. We use silica colloidal spheres and polymer-modified silica spheres to prepare the membranes in a time-, cost- and materialefficient manner. First, we prepared novel silica nanoporous membranes by pressing silica colloidal spheres followed by sintering. The pore size, the thickness, and the area of the membrane are precisely controlled by experiment parameters. The resulting membranes are mechanically and thermally durable, crack-free, and capable of size-selective transport. Next, to demonstrate the utility of the pressed membranes, described above, the proton-conductive pore-filled silica colloidal membranes were prepared and the fuel cells were constructed using these membranes. We modified these membranes by filling the membrane pores with surface-attached proton-conductive polymer brushes and prepared membrane-electrode assemblies to test fuel cell performance. We studied the proton conductivity and fuel cell performance as a function of the amount of sulfonic groups in the membrane. We also prepared and characterized reversible hybrid nanoporous membranes, self-assembled from solution containing polymer-modified silica colloidal spheres. Here we applied the new concept of noncovalent membranes, where the material is held together via noncovalent interactions of polymer brushes. This enables so-called reversible assembly of the membranes, in which membrane can be assembled in one solvent and dissolved in other. This approach provides advantages in recycling and reusing of the material. This work is one of the first of its kind and it opens a whole new area of research on reversible membranes made of polymer-modified nanoparticles. Finally, we applied our approach for preparation of both pore-filled and reversible self-assembled silica membranes to develop new SPE material for lithium rechargeable batteries. We successfully prepared ion-conductive SPE from each of the materials and demonstrated the proof-of-concept for these approaches. Overall, in this thesis, we introduce unique approaches where we combine simple materials with novel yet easy preparation and modification methods to obtain new functional nanoporous membranes with desired properties. |
