{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,31]],"date-time":"2026-10-31T03:59:09Z","timestamp":1793419149468,"version":"4.5.0"},"reference-count":43,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"14","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,17]],"date-time":"2024-07-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1721174400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Science and Technology Projects in Guangzhou city","award":["202102010125"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["202102010125"]}]},{"name":"Science and Technology Projects in Guangzhou city","award":["20191080"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["20191080"]}]},{"name":"Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Guangdong Province of China","award":["202102010125"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["202102010125"]}]},{"name":"Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine of Guangdong Province of China","award":["20191080"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["20191080"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nanomaterials"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Non-fluorinated chitosan-based proton exchange membranes (PEMs) have been attracting considerable interest due to their environmental friendliness and relatively low cost. However, low proton conductivity and poor physicochemical properties have limited their application in fuel cells. In this work, a reinforced nanofiller (sulfonated CS\/GO, S-CS\/GO) is accomplished, for the first time, via a facile amidation and sulfonation reaction. Novel chitosan-based composite PEMs are successfully constructed by the incorporation of the nanofiller into the chitosan matrix. Additionally, the effects of the type and amount of the nanofillers on physicochemical and electrochemical properties are further investigated. It is demonstrated that the chitosan-based composite PEMs incorporating an appropriate amount of the nanofillers (9 wt.%) exhibit good membrane-forming ability, physicochemical properties, improved proton conductivity, and low methanol permeability even under a high temperature and low humidity environment. When the incorporated amounts of S-CS\/GO are 9 wt.%, the proton conductivity of the composite PEMs was up to 0.032 S\/cm but methanol permeability was decreased to 1.42 \u00d7 10\u22127 cm2\/s. Compared to a pristine CS membrane, the tensile strength of the composite membrane is improved by 98% and the methanol permeability is reduced by 51%.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nano14141217","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,17]],"date-time":"2024-07-17T15:15:19Z","timestamp":1721229319000},"page":"1217","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":20,"title":["Improved Proton Conductivity of Chitosan-Based Composite Proton Exchange Membrane Reinforced by Modified GO Inorganic Nanofillers"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Xinrui","family":"Guo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhongxin","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhanyan","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Hui","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Chunlei","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7231-9051","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Huaxin","family":"Rao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"College of Chemistry and Materials Science, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,17]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Li, X.Y., Zhang, Z.X., Xie, Z., Guo, X.R., Yang, T.J., Li, Z.L., Tu, M., and Rao, H.X. 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