In this thesis, three types of conductive membranes were fabricated and characterized for potential energy applications such as fuel cells and solar photovoltaics. First, a single layer conductive polypyrrole (PPy) membrane was synthesized and activated. Through image analysis, surface pore geometry changes were analyzed. The single layer PPy membrane was proposed as a possible additional layer or coating in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. Next, a novel adaptive trilayer PPy membrane was fabricated. The membranes were activated, and characterized through changes in surface wrinkle, roughness and contact angle. A dynamic range of surface properties were observed. Lastly, conductive fibrous membranes were fabricated with electrospinning. Two methods were utilized to spin conductive fibers including the incorporation of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) in polystyrene (PS) and the utilization of vapor phase polymerization (VPP) to chemically synthesize PPy on electrospun FeCl3/PS oxidant fibers. Properties including fiber morphology, thermal stability and conductivity were characterized.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:OTU.1807/32638 |
| Date | 17 August 2012 |
| Creators | Wang, Jingwen |
| Contributors | Bazylak, Aimy, Naguib, Hani E. |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | en_ca |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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