Nanoporous proton-conducting membranes

Peled, E. Duvdevani, T. Aharon, A. Melman, A.A. Direct methanol fuel cell based on a novel low-cost nanoporous proton-conducting membrane. Electrochem. Solid-State Lett. 2000, 3, 525-528. 

Peled s group demonstrated the capacity of C2H6O2 as a real fuel, using it to fuel single cells [27, 28, 31]. The DEGFC delivered power densities as high as 320 mW/cm at 130 °C with a nanoporous proton-conducting membrane (NP-PCM) [27]. 

Peled E, Livshits V, Duvdevani T (2002) High-power direct ethylene glycol fuel cell (DEGFC) based on nanoporous proton-conducting membrane (NP-PCM). J Powct Sources 106 245-248... 

Another alternative to replace conventional ion exchange membranes is nanoporous silicon membrane. Nanoporous silicon membrane has been implemented in PEM fuel cells primarily due to its compatibility with microfabrication, stability at elevated temperatures, higher proton conductivity, and free from volumetric size change. As shown in Fig. 8, Moghaddam... 

Since UTCLs contain no added electrolyte, the mode of proton transport in such layers remains a debated question. It was postulated in Chan and Eikerling (2011) that protons in water-filled UTCL pores undergo bulk-water-like transport, similar to ion transport in charged nanofluidic channels (Daiguji, 2010 Stein et al., 2004) and gold nanoporous membranes (Nishizawa et al., 1995). The proton conductivity of the pore is then determined by the electrostatic interaction of protons with the surface charge of pore walls. 

An obvious approach in evaluating the nanopore model would involve a measurement of the proton conductivity of a nanoporous layer with charged metallic walls as a function of the applied voltage. Proton concentration in a conductive nanoporous membrane is a function of (pP . Assuming bulk-like proton transport, the variation of... 

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