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Highly ordered Nafion‐silica‐HPW proton exchange membrane for elevated temperature fuel cells
Author(s) -
Lin Chen,
Haolin Tang,
Junrui Li,
Mu Pan
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
international journal of energy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.808
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1099-114X
pISSN - 0363-907X
DOI - 10.1002/er.2890
Subject(s) - nafion , electrolyte , proton exchange membrane fuel cell , membrane , relative humidity , proton transport , proton , chemical engineering , ionomer , chemistry , materials science , conductivity , inorganic chemistry , analytical chemistry (journal) , chromatography , composite material , electrochemistry , polymer , electrode , engineering , biochemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , copolymer , thermodynamics
SUMMARY Well‐ordered Nafion‐silica‐HPW proton exchange membranes with Nafion ionomers as co‐surfactant have been synthesized through a facile self‐assembly between the positively charged silica, negatively charged HPW acids, and Nafion ionomers. The results exhibited uniform nanoarrays with long‐range order when Nafion content in the complex is lower than 30 wt%. The electrolyte stripe textures were clearly presented with an interval channel of 5–6 nm. The well‐ordered proton conducting sites made the proton move through the membrane freely with low humidity dependence of proton transportation through the Nafion‐silica‐HPW electrolyte. The proton conductivities of the Nafion‐silica‐HPW electrolyte with Nafion content of 10–30 wt% were 0.018–0.022 Scm −1 at 25 °C without humidification, and the conductivities increased to 0.043–0.05 Scm −1 when the temperature increased to 200 °C. The capillary condensation of the ordered structure also improved the water uptake of the Nafion‐silica‐HPW electrolyte at low humidity. With external humidifying of 25 RH%, the water uptake of the Nafion‐silica‐HPW electrolyte with Nafion content of 10–30 wt% reached to 15–23 wt% at elevated temperature of 100–200 °C. The improvement of the water uptake facilitated proton transport through the Nafion‐silica‐HPW electrolytes, resulting in proton conductivities of 0.082–0.095 Scm −1 at temperature of 150–200 °C, 25 RH%. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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