Proton Conducting Electrolytes and Their Application in Fuel Cells

Proton Conducting Electrolytes and Their Application in Fuel Cells [Pg.710]

The fuel cell concept has been known for more than 150 years. It was Christian Friedrich Schonbein who recognized and described the appearance of inverse electrolysis [4] shortly before Sir William Grove, the inventor of the platinum/ zinc battery, constructed his first gas voltaic battery [5]. Grove used platinum electrodes and dilute sulfuric acid as a proton conducting electrolyte. Sulfuric acid is still used today for the impregnation of porous separators serving as the electrolyte in direct methanol laboratory fuel cells [6], but the most commonly used fuel cell electrolytes today are hydrated acidic ionomers. As opposed to aqueous sulfuric acid, where the dissociated protons and the diverse sulfate anions (conjugated [Pg.710]