Premium
A Quaternary Polybenzimidazole Membrane for Intermediate Temperature Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells
Author(s) -
Xu C.,
Scott K.,
Li Q.,
Yang J.,
Wu X.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
fuel cells
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.485
H-Index - 69
eISSN - 1615-6854
pISSN - 1615-6846
DOI - 10.1002/fuce.201200149
Subject(s) - membrane , phosphoric acid , proton exchange membrane fuel cell , electrolyte , conductivity , polymer , chemical engineering , ammonium , materials science , fourier transform infrared spectroscopy , fuel cells , polymer chemistry , chemistry , organic chemistry , electrode , composite material , biochemistry , engineering
Abstract A quaternary ammonium polybenzimidazole (QPBI) membrane was synthesized for applications in intermediate temperature (100–200 °C) hydrogen fuel cells. The QPBI membrane was imbibed with phosphoric acid to provide suitable proton conductivity. The proton conductivity of the membrane was 0.051 S cm –1 at 150 °C with the PA acid loading level of 3.5 PRU (amount of H 3 PO 4 per repeat unit of polymer QPBI). The QPBI membrane was characterized in terms of composition, structure and morphology by NMR, FTIR, SEM, and EDX. The fuel cell performance with the membrane gave peak power densities of 440 and 240 mW cm –2 using oxygen and air, respectively, at 175 °C.