Nafion PEMFC

Hydrated Nafion 117 (175 pm thick) has conductivities in the range of 10" S cm" at 80°C. Nafion has a high electroosmotic drag coefficient that can lead to problems with water management in a PEMFC. Nafion has been... 

Therefore, one main drawback of the PEMFC configuration with a standard proton exchange membrane (such as Nafion) and a standard platinum gas diffusion cathode is the cathode depolarization caused by a mixed potential resulting from the methanol crossover through the mem-... 

Following a period of slack, decisive improvements were made after 1990 in the area of PEMFCs. Modem models now achieve specific powers of over 600 to 800 mW/cm while using less than 0.4 mg/cm of platinum catalysts and offering a service fife of several tens of thousands of hours. These advances were basically attained by the combination of two factors (1) using new proton-exchange membranes of the Nafion type, and (2) developing ways toward much more efficient utilization of the platinum catalysts in the electrodes. 

In PEMFCs, the membrane electrode assembly (MEA, Eig. 15.2a) is a multilayer sandwich composed of catalytic layers (CLs) where electrochemical reactions take place, gas-diffusion media providing access of gases to the CLs, and a proton exchange membrane (PEM) such as Nafion . The CL is a multiphase multicomponent medium comprising ... 

The spurred impetus has been given to developing non pollutant vehicles, and consequently, the clean cars driven by the fuel cells loading proton exchange membranes (PEMFC), which based upon Nafion, have been surprisingly developed. A promising less pollutant and economical system is also expected, which will be the on site cogeneration system of electric power and the hot water supply with use of fuel cells combined with city gas pipe-lines. 

A well-distributed deposition of Pt/C nanocatalyst and Nafion ionomer on bofh hydrophilic and hydrophobic carbon-based electrodes has been successfully obfained using a Pt/C concentration of 1.0 g/L, an electrical field of 300 V/cm, and a deposition time of 5 minutes [118]. The deposition of Pt/C nanocatalysts and Nafion solution via the electrophoretic process gives rise to higher deposition efficiency and a uniform distribution of catalyst and Nafion ionomer on the PEMFC electrodes. 

Kraemer, S. V., Lindbergh, G., Lafitte, B., Puchner, M., andJannasch, P. Substitution of Nafion with sulfonated polysulfone in membrane-electrode assembly components for 60-120°C PEMFC operation. Journal of the Electrochemical Society 2008 155 B1001-B1007. 

Lee, D., and Hwang, S. Effect of loading and distributions of Nafion ionomer in the catalyst layer for PEMFCs. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy 2008 33 2790-2794. 

Cross-linked, sulfonic-acid-substituted, polyphosphazene-based PEMs have primarily been examined for potential use in DMFC applications due to their low MeOH crossover with reported values 2.5 times lower than that of Nafion. These materials have also been shown to display good thermomechanical and chemical stability (in a Fenton test). Sulfonamide-substituted polyphosphazenes have exhibited very high power densities that are comparable with Nation and may be suitable for use in PEMFC applications. ... 

Figure 29. Conductivity of some intermediate-temperature proton conductors, compared to the conductivity of Nafion and the oxide ion conductivity of YSZ (yttria-stabilized zirconia), the standard electrolyte materials for low- and high-temperature fuel cells, proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs).

Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) working at around 70 °C with a polymer membrane electrolyte, such as Nafion, which is a solid proton conductor (conducting by the H + cation). 

The actually developed PEMFCs have a Nafion membrane, which partially fulfills these requirements, since its thermal stability is limited to 100 °C and its proton conductivity decreases strongly at higher temperatures because of its dehydration. On the other hand, it is not completely tight to liquid fuels (such as alcohols). This becomes more important as the membrane is thin (a few tens of micrometers). Furthermore, its actual cost is too high (more than 500 m ), so that its use in a PEMFC for an electric car is not cost competitive. 

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) 80-90 Polymer membrane (Nafion) Hydrogen, reformed methanol or methane 50-60 Transport, electro car, space flight, shipping... 

As a base of proton conducting membrane polyvinyl alcohol (PVS) and phenolsulfonic acid (PSA) was synthesized [9]. Membrane is rendered on a surface of a catalytic layer and dries up at room temperature. As shown in [9], at ratio PVS PSA=4 1 the membrane surpasses widely used in PEMFC membranes on the Nafion basis. Besides, experimental data testily that the solution can successfully be used as a connecting element for the anode and the cathode bonding at FC assembly. 

As shown in Figure 1.6, the optimized cathode and anode structures in PEMFCs include carbon paper or carbon cloth coated with a carbon-PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene) sub-layer (or diffusion layer) and a catalyst layer containing carbon-supported catalyst and Nafion ionomer. The two electrodes are hot pressed with the Nafion membrane in between to form a membrane electrode assembly (MEA), which is the core of the PEMFC. Other methods, such as catalyst coated membranes, have also been used in the preparation of MEAs. 

The theoretical cell voltage of a DMFC at standard conditions is 1.20 V. The materials used in DMFCs are similar to those in PEMFCs. Pt, PtRu, and Nafion membrane are used as cathode catalyst, anode catalyst, and proton transfer membranes, respectively. However, the catalyst loading in a DMFC is much higher than the loading used in H2/air fuel cells, because both side reactions are slow (Pt loadings 4 mg/cm2 for a DMFC, 0.8 mg/cm2 for a H2/air fuel cell). 

Li G, Pickup PG (2003) Ionic conductivity of PEMFC electrodes effect of Nafion loading. JElectrochem Soc (ll) C745-52... 

For PEMFCs, the solid electrolytes are polymer membranes polymers modified to include ions, usually sulfonic groups. One of the most widely used membranes today is the polymer Nafion , created by the DuPont company. These membranes have aliphatic perfluorinated backbones with ether-linked side chains ending in sulfonate cation exchange groups [6, 7], Nafion is a copolymer of tetrafluoroethylene and sulfonyl fluoride vinyl ether [8] and has a semi-crystalline structure [9], This structure (which resembles Teflon ) gives Nafion long-term stability in oxidative or reductive conditions. The sulfonic groups of the polymers facilitate the transport of protons. The polymers consist of hydrophilic and hydrophobic domains that allow the transport of protons from the anode to the cathode [10, 11],... 

Figure 3.18. Schematic of the PEMFC geometry and basic electric circuit showing the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) and the gas diffusion layers (GDLs) at both anode and cathode [33], (Reprinted from Electrochimica Acta, 51(13), Tsampas MN, Pikos A, Brosda S, Katsaounis A, Vayenas CG, The effect of membrane thickness on the conductivity of Nafion, 2743-55. 2006, with permission from Elsevier.)...

Figure 6.10. Comparison of Nyquist plots of fuel cells with different Nafion loadings in the catalyst layers of both the cathode and the anode [7], (Reproduced by permission of ECS—The Electrochemical Society, from Guo Q, Cayetano M, Tsou Y, De-Castro ES, White RE. Study of ionic conductivity profiles of the air cathode of a PEMFC by AC impedance spectroscopy.)...

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