Utilization of glass paper as a support of proton conductive inorganic-organic hybrid membranes based on 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane

Proton conductive inorganic-organic membranes supported by glass paper were prepared from 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane, tetraethoxysilane and orthophosphoric acid. Hybrid membranes with a thickness of 80 μm were obtained by using 40 μm-thick glass papers. Support of the hybrid membrane by the glass paper enables the formation of the membrane with small thickness and high mechanical strength. The open circuit voltage of the test cell using the membrane supported by the glass paper was 0.75 V and a power density of about 85 mW cm−2 was obtained with current density of 300 mA cm−2 at cell temperature of 130 °C and 7% relative humidity.