Thermal and Electrical Properties of “Liquid” Nano Carbon and its Applications in Fuel Cell Technology

Abstract

In the previous study, we conducted the study of chemical top down process which seems to provide better efficiency and better cost saving than the physical top down in the fabrication of nano scale, especially, when applying to carbon materials. It is found that the chemical top down performs effectively with multiple attachments of electrolytic groups onto the surface of the carbon powder by diazo coupling reaction. As a result, we are able to isolate the nano scale of carbon particles with strong polar solvents such as water and believe that it is due to electrostatic repulsive force between same sign charges existing in the polarized electrolytic groups… In the present study, we found that the cleavage of azo bond in the coupling product can occur above 110°C in ambient condition but it can also escape the thermal decomposition by a nano composite structure using specific emulsion polymer as binder matrix. Electrolytic groups which carry charge from ionization are speculated to reduce electron transport but enhance proton transport capability of carbon material, have successfully demonstrated a proton exchange membrane (PEM) which exhibits better heat resistance and higher current density than the commercial PEM Nafion product in the PEM fuel cell application. The multiple coupling product exhibits a core-shell structure composed of a nano scale hydrophobic core and electrolytic shell, showing apparent “solubility “and named as “liquid” nano carbon (LNC).