Vanderbilt University

Andrew Park

Peter N Pintauro

Jason Ballengee

A method of fabricating a composite membrane, includes the steps of: forming a first solution comprising a charged polymer and a first uncharged polymer having a repeat unit of a formula of: where each of X and Y is a non-hydroxyl group; forming a second solution comprising a second uncharged polymer; electrospinning, separately and simultaneously, the first solution and the second solution to form a dual fiber mat; and processing the dual fiber mat to form the composite membrane.

Composite membranes, methods of making same, and applications of same

In one aspect of the present invention, a method of fabricating a composite membrane includes: forming a first polymer solution from a first polymer and a second polymer solution from a second polymer, respectively, where the first polymer includes a charged polymer and the second polymer includes an uncharged polymer; electrospinning, separately and simultaneously, the first and second polymer solutions to form a dual fiber mat with first polymer fibers and second polymer fibers; and processing the dual fiber mat by softening and flowing one of the first or second polymer fibers to fill in the void space between the other of the first and second polymer fibers so as to form the composite membrane. In some embodiments, the composite membrane may be a proton exchange membrane (PEM) or an anion exchange membrane (AEM).

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Nashville, TN, United States of America

Andrew Park