Temperature Tolerant Proton Conducting Polytetramethylene Oxide/zirconium Oxide Hybrid Membrane

摘要

Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEFC) using hydrated perfluorosulfonic polymers such as NAFION have been developed in the past years. However, the high materials cost and complicated water managements are major obstacles for practical applications of PEFC. Also, CO poisoning of Pt alloy electrodes requires the complicated reforming system, which purify the hydrogen rich gas down to the CO contamination level of few ppm. One of the technological challenge is to develop an electrolyte membrane that can be operated at higher temperatures (100-200 oC) and lower humidity level, which drastically improve the electrode performance and the cell efficiency.[1-3] Synthetic approaches of temperature tolerant proton conducting membranes based on acid-base blends [2-6] or organic/inorganic hybrids [7-12] are reported, and successful application in single fuel cells has been shown in many cases.