Sulfonated Poly Arylene Ether Ketone s in DMFC

Sulfonated Poly(Arylene Ether Ketone)s in DMFC 

Sulfonated poly(aryl ether ketone)s appear to have their merits especially in DMFC, where one of the problems of current commercially available per-fluorinated membranes is the relatively high methanol permeability, which translates to a reduced power efficiency of the fuel cell. 

Sulfonated poly(arylene ether ketone)s have been shown to possess lower methanol permeability than Nafion by a factor of 3-4 (corrected for membrane thickness) [42], Incorporation of inorganic proton conductors, such as heteropolyacids, can reduce methanol permeability further to a factor of more than 20 (corrected for thickness) [42] compared to plain Nafion 117, while maintaining almost the same proton conductivity as Nafion 117 at room temperature (fully hydrated). Some results are shown in Table 2. 

S-PEEK with tungstophosphoric acid (TPA) alone exhibits a higher methanol flow than unfilled S-PEEK, and the TPA is also extracted to a significant extent by liquid water. Interestingly, both methanol flow and bleeding of TPA are strongly decreased by the addition of ZrOz- The zirconium oxide was not added as a preformed powder, but was prepared in situ by hydrolysis of zirconium tetra propoxide in the casting solution [42]. In the case 

Polymer D ( cm) MeOH flow (g/hm ) Reduction of MeOH flow Conductivity (mS/cm) 

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