Abstract
As a traditional high-temperature proton exchange membrane (HT-PEM), phosphoric acid (PA)-doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) is often subject to severe mechanical strength deterioration owing to the “plasticizing effect” of a large amount of PA. In order to address this issue, we fabricated the HT-PEMs with a crosslinked network of poly (arylene ether ketone) to confine polybenzimidazole in semi-interpenetration network using self-synthesized amino-terminated PBI (PBI-4NH2) as a crosslinker. Compared with the pristine linear poly [2,2′-(p-oxdiphenylene)-5,5′-benzimidazole] (OPBI) membrane, the designed HT-PEMs (semi-IPN/xPBI), in the semi-IPN means that the membranes with a semi-interpenetration structure and x represent the combined weight percentage of PBI-4NH2 and OPBI. In addition, they also demonstrate an enhanced anti-oxidative stability and superior mechanical properties without the sacrifice of conductivity. The semi-IPN/70PBI exhibits a higher proton conductivity than OPBI at temperatures ranging from 80 to 180 °C. The HT-PEMFC with semi-IPN/70PBI exhibits excellent H2/O2 single cell performance with a power density of 660 mW cm−2 at 160 °C with flow rates of 250 and 500 mL min−1 for dry H2 and O2 at a backpressure of 0.03 MPa, which is 18% higher than that of OPBI (561 mW cm−2) under the same test conditions. The results indicate that the introduction of PBI containing crosslinked networks is a promising approach to improve the comprehensive performance of HT-PEMs.
Highlights
In the last few decades, high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (HTPEMFCs) with an operating temperature above 100 ◦ C and a relative humidity below50% have drawn increasing attention as advanced energy conversion devices, owing to their remarkable advantages of excellent thermal efficiency, high catalyst tolerance to CO, rapid electrode kinetics, simple water-heat management systems, and so on [1–5]
The proton exchange membranes (PEMs) as the core part of HT-PEMFCs have an important impact on the lifespan and performance of fuel cells, which serves to transport protons and avoid fuel penetration from two electrodes [6–8]
For phosphoric acid (PA)-PBI membrane, the proton conductivity increases with increasing acid doping levels (ADLs)
Summary
In the last few decades, high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (HTPEMFCs) with an operating temperature above 100 ◦ C and a relative humidity below50% have drawn increasing attention as advanced energy conversion devices, owing to their remarkable advantages of excellent thermal efficiency, high catalyst tolerance to CO, rapid electrode kinetics, simple water-heat management systems, and so on [1–5]. In the last few decades, high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (HTPEMFCs) with an operating temperature above 100 ◦ C and a relative humidity below. The proton exchange membranes (PEMs) as the core part of HT-PEMFCs have an important impact on the lifespan and performance of fuel cells, which serves to transport protons and avoid fuel penetration from two electrodes [6–8]. Phosphoric acid-doped polybenzimidazole (PA-PBI) is rapidly becoming one of the most promising candidates to dominate the HT-PEMs prospect due to its favorable proton conductivity and its outstanding thermal and chemical stability. For PA-PBI membrane, the proton conductivity increases with increasing acid doping levels (ADLs). In far too many circumstances, a high PA doping level is essential to obtain the ideal proton conductivity for PA-PBI-based HT-PEMFCs. excessive
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