Development of proton-conducting membrane based on incorporating a proton conductor 1,2,4-triazolium methanesulfonate into the Nafion membrane

摘要

In this paper, 1,2,4-triazolium methanesulfonate(C2H4N+3CH3SO-3, [Tri][MS]), an ionic conductor, was successfully synthesized. It exhibited high ionic conductivity of 18.60 m S cm-1at 140CdSC and reached up to 36.51 m S cm-1at 190CdSC. [Tri][MS] was first applied to modify Nafion membrane to fabricate [Tri][MS]/Nafion membrane by impregnation method at 150CdSC. The prepared composite membrane showed high thermal stability with decomposed temperature above 200CdSC in air atmosphere. In addition, the membrane indicated good ionic conductivity with 3.67 m S cm-1at 140CdSC and reached up to 13.23 m S cm-1at 180CdSC. The structure of the [Tri][MS] and the composite membrane were characterized by FTIR and the compatibility of [Tri][MS] and Pt/C catalyst was studied by a cyclic voltammetry(CV) method. Besides, the[Tri][MS]/Nafion membrane(thickness of 65 μm) was evaluated with single fuel cell at high temperature and without humidification. The highest power density of [Tri][MS]/Nafion membrane was 3.20 m W cm-2at 140CdSC and 4.90 m W cm-2at 150CdSC, which was much higher than that of Nafion membrane.