Proton-Conducting Polymer Composite With Reduced Methanol Permeability

摘要

Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC) using Nation® as the polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) suffer performance loses due to methanol crossover. An interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) was developed that contains a proton-conducting polymer and a second polymer which is a barrier to methanol. Each polymer can be independently cross-linked to vary properties of the IPN. PEM's were prepared having up to fifteen times less permeability to methanol than Nation. Proton conductivity ranged from 5 x 10~(-3) S cm~(-1) to 1.5 x 10~(-2) S cm~(-1) from 20°C to 80 °C respectively.