Examination of the performance of degraded Nafion membrane with graphene oxide

Abstract

The degradation of Nafion membrane easily occurs after a long run of proton exchange membrane fuel cell. Graphene-oxide (GO) is regarded as an ideal material to form composite membrane. In this work, a multistate empirical valence bond (MS-EVB) method and molecular dynamics method are employed to investigate the effect of GO on transport and solvation characteristics of protons in the degraded hydration membrane. The hydrophilic cluster and its connectivity are analyzed. The interaction between GO, Nafion membrane and water molecules is discussed. The influence of GO on the thermal conduction of Nafion membrane is also evaluated. The results demonstrate that with the addition of GO, the water cluster connectivity of Nafion membrane becomes better. The distribution of hydronium ions and membranes in the water is more uniform, which increases the proton conductivity. The larger GO may not interact well with water molecules, but promotes the thermal conductivity of degraded Nafion membrane more obviously.