USEABLE OF STYROFOAM PLASTIC WASTE FOR PREPARATION OF POLYMER ELECTROLYTE MEMBRANES AND THEIR CHARACTERIZATIONS

• Main Author: LAMIERZA YUSUP (NIM: 20508012), LUCHANA
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/12341
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Crisis of energy sources of fossil fuel, example oil, become a great problem for all peoples in the world. The amount of this fossil energy sources would reach a limit and then finished. Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is an alternative energy sources to solve the problems of the decrease amounts of fossil fuel sources. The most important part in this fuel cell is the polymer electrolyte membrane. Nafion which commonly used as commercial membrane, has a very high cost. Sulfonated polystyrene membrane developed as a substituted membrane for Nafion, cannot transport proton properly and has a brittle structure. Thus polystyrene is modified by sulfonation reactions to produce sulfonated polystyrene. In order to obtain source of polystyrene that has a lower cost than polystyrene obtained by polymerization of styrene monomers, so in this research was used polystyrene obtained from isolation of styrofoam waste that used for packing electronic device. The advantages of use this styrofoam waste is to provide a source of polystyrene with low cost that can be modified to polymer electrolyte membrane, and also can reduce the amount of plastic waste in environtment, because this material is difficult to degrade naturally. If this styrofoam can be used as a source of polystyrene, it will give a good influence for society and also for environtment. <br />