Abstract
Compared with that of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), alkaline anion exchange membranes fuel cells (AEMFCs) with alkaline anion exchange membranes (AEMs) as electrolyte, are attracting more and more attention due to their potential use of nonprecious catalysts. As one of the key components of AEMFCs, an ideal AEM must possess high hydroxide conductivity, good thermal stability, sufficient mechanical stability and excellent long-term durability at elevated temperatures under alkaline environment. Until now, a large amount of AEMs with various chemical structures and properties have been prepared and studied in detail, and it is found that the micro-phase separation structure greatly affected the performance of AEMs. This mini-review provides recent progresses of AEMs with hydrophilic/hydrophobic micro-phase separation structure. The hydroxide conductivity, alkaline stability and mechanical properties of AEMs could be improved due to the formation of hydrophilic/hydrophobic micro-phase separation in membranes. The relationship among micro-phase separation structure, the chemical structures of polymers and the performance of membranes have been discussed in detail. The attempt of this article is to give an overview of some key factors for future design of novel AEMs with excellent performance such as high conductivity and improved chemical stability.
Highlights
With the increasing exhaustion of fossil energy and the ever-growing demand for power, environment-friendly power generation technology with high efficiency is urgently needed (Wu et al, 2016; Zhang et al, 2016)
Based on the polymer electrolyte membrane, the polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells could be classified as proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), and alkaline anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs)
We briefly introduce the methods for enhancing the performance of anion exchange membranes (AEMs) and provide recent progresses of AEMs with hydrophilic/hydrophobic microphase separation structure, and the relationship between microphase separation structure and the performance of membranes has been discussed in detail
Summary
With the increasing exhaustion of fossil energy and the ever-growing demand for power, environment-friendly power generation technology with high efficiency is urgently needed (Wu et al, 2016; Zhang et al, 2016). The performance of AEMs was greatly enhanced during the past few years, the foundational properties of AEMs are not comparable to those of PEMs (such as Nafion) due to the intrinsic low mobility of OH− and the well-known base-induced decomposition of organic cations as well as polymer backbones (Tanaka et al, 2011; Noonan et al, 2012; Qiu et al, 2012; Kim et al, 2017; Hao et al, 2018). Inspired from this, various AEMs with hydrophilic/hydrophobic microphase separation structure were developed and showed improved conductivity and alkaline stability.
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