TY - JOUR
T1 - Nafion®/ODF-silica composite membranes for medium temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells
AU - Treekamol, Yaowapa
AU - Schieda, Mauricio
AU - Robitaille, Lucie
AU - MacKinnon, Sean M.
AU - Mokrini, Asmae
AU - Shi, Zhiqing
AU - Holdcroft, Steven
AU - Schulte, Karl I.
AU - Nunes, Suzana Pereira
N1 - KAUST Repository Item: Exported on 2020-10-01
Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank S. Neumann and Dr. T. Emmler for their contribution to the SEM, and thermal characterizations; F. Vachon, N. Raymond, and P. Le Marquand for their contribution to membrane and MEA processing and characterization. The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding provided by the NRC-Helmholtz Association Cooperation project on MEAs for high temperature fuel cells. Finally, the authors would like to acknowledge the editor's insightful comments.
PY - 2014/1
Y1 - 2014/1
N2 - A series of composite membranes were prepared by dispersing fluorinated polyoxadiazole oligomer (ODF)-functionalized silica nanoparticles in a Nafion matrix. Both melt-extrusion and solvent casting processes were explored. Ion exchange capacity, conductivity, water uptake and dimensional stability, thermal stability and morphology were characterized. The inclusion of functionalized nanoparticles proved advantageous, mainly due to a physical crosslinking effect and better water retention, with functionalized nanoparticles performing better than the pristine silica particles. For the same filler loading, better nanoparticle dispersion was achieved for solvent-cast membranes, resulting in higher proton conductivity. Filler agglomeration, however,was more severe for solvent-castmembranes at loadings beyond 5wt.%. The composite membranes showed excellent thermal stability, allowing for operation in medium temperature PEM fuel cells. Fuel cell performance of the compositemembranesdecreaseswithdecreasing relativehumidity, but goodperformance values are still obtained at 34% RHand 90 °C,with the best results obtained for solvent castmembranes loaded with 10 wt.% ODF-functionalized silica. Hydrogen crossover of the composite membranes is higher than that forpureNafion membranes,possiblydue toporosityresulting fromsuboptimalparticle- matrixcompatibility. © 2013 Crown Copyright and Elsevier BV. All rights reserved.
AB - A series of composite membranes were prepared by dispersing fluorinated polyoxadiazole oligomer (ODF)-functionalized silica nanoparticles in a Nafion matrix. Both melt-extrusion and solvent casting processes were explored. Ion exchange capacity, conductivity, water uptake and dimensional stability, thermal stability and morphology were characterized. The inclusion of functionalized nanoparticles proved advantageous, mainly due to a physical crosslinking effect and better water retention, with functionalized nanoparticles performing better than the pristine silica particles. For the same filler loading, better nanoparticle dispersion was achieved for solvent-cast membranes, resulting in higher proton conductivity. Filler agglomeration, however,was more severe for solvent-castmembranes at loadings beyond 5wt.%. The composite membranes showed excellent thermal stability, allowing for operation in medium temperature PEM fuel cells. Fuel cell performance of the compositemembranesdecreaseswithdecreasing relativehumidity, but goodperformance values are still obtained at 34% RHand 90 °C,with the best results obtained for solvent castmembranes loaded with 10 wt.% ODF-functionalized silica. Hydrogen crossover of the composite membranes is higher than that forpureNafion membranes,possiblydue toporosityresulting fromsuboptimalparticle- matrixcompatibility. © 2013 Crown Copyright and Elsevier BV. All rights reserved.
UR - http://hdl.handle.net/10754/563318
UR - https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S037877531300236X
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84901404304&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2013.01.178
DO - 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2013.01.178
M3 - Article
SN - 0378-7753
VL - 246
SP - 950
EP - 959
JO - Journal of Power Sources
JF - Journal of Power Sources
ER -
