Composite polymer electrolytes proton exchange membrane fuel

In the 1980s, several authors proposed the use of composite polymer electrolytes. The solutions they proposed depended on the electrochemical application, i.e. lithium batteries, fuel cells, etc., which determined the properties required. This chapter reviews the development and properties of composite polymer electrolytes used in lithium batteries and proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). The effects of fillers on electrolyte properties are discussed in terms of electrochemical performance, and also in terms of polymer matrix morphology and dynamics. Data from the literature are compared in order to determine the effects of the manufacturing... 

The main difference between the AFC and PAFC is the gas-tight solid polymer electrolyte membrane, a sohd proton exchange membrane which has as its main function the transport of protons from anode to cathode. To investigate the physical and electrochemical origins of the performance loss in PEFC—operated at different conditions like high current densities, fuel composition (neat H2, H2 -1- lOOppm CO, H2O), flow rates, temperature, air or pure oxygen, etc.—electrochemical impedance studies on different PEFC systems with different electrodes and membranes were performed, as mentioned in Section 4.5.4.1. First impedance measurements and interpretation of FIS performed to characterize PEFC were reported by Srinivasan et al. [1988], Fletcher [1992], Wilson et al. [1993] and Poltarzewski et al. [1992], With increasing research and development effort to improve the PEFC performance and availability of suitable instrumentation the number of publications has increased. 

Tang H, Pan M, Jiang SP et al (2007) Fabrication and characterization of PFSl/ePTFE composite proton exchange membranes of polymer electrolyte fuel cells. Electmchim Acta 52 5304—5311... 

AFC is another type of fuel cell with OH as current conduction medium. As the traditional liquid electrolyte AFC has many drawbacks, for example, CO2 sensitivity, AEM fuel cell (AEMFC) was more attractive to the researchers in recent years [92], Nafion, the reference material for proton-exchange membranes, was no longer suitable for AEMFC. Therefore, many studies about aliphatic membranes were conducted for AEMFC. Most of them were focused on PVA-based membrane. In these studies, PVA polymers were composited with other polymers like poly(12-acryloylaminododecanoic acid) (PAADA), PVP, and PS [15,16,63,118], For the membranes without anion like PVA/PAP and PVA/PS, they need to be immersed in alkali solution, for example, KOH solution, for anion conduction in fuel cell. While for the membrane with anion already, for example, PVA/PAADA, alkali solution is no longer required. In addition, to fix alkali in the manbrane, PVA pure or composite membranes were usually cross-linked before use [19,25] (Table 10.3). 

Novel methanol barrier polymer electrolyte manbranes for direct methanol fuel cells were proposed and characterized from PVA blend- lystyrene sulfonic add (PSS A). The effects of curing tanperature, methanol concentration, and membrane composition on the ionic conductivity and the methanol permeability of the membranes were also investigated [50]. In an interesting study, a new proton exchange... 

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