New Proton Conductive Heteroaromatic Bisphosphonic acid-Nafion Membranes for PEMFC

Abstract

The integration of new cleaner, renewable and environment-friendly sources and energy vectors for sustainable energy systems are a key challenge for 21st century society. Fuel cells are among the clean energy conversion technologies with vast applications and scope, introducing hydrogen as a flexible and storable energy vector and presenting a viable alternative to fossil fuels. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) are considered promising power sources, but their performance depends crucially on the properties of their proton exchange membranes (PEM). These membranes strongly depend on the presence of conducting water or other electrolyte content, which limits their operation to 80 ºC. In order to advance novel membranes for application in PEMFCs, we have developed a series of bisphosphonic acid derivatives, which are used as dopants. Herein, we present the preparation and characterization of the new Nafion doped membranes, and the evaluation of their proton conductivity at different temperature and relative humidity (RH) conditions. In this work, new Nafion doped membranes were prepared and their proton conductivity were evaluated. The incorporation of BPs dopants on Nafion polymer enhances the proton conductivities of the new membranes, with all membranes showing higher proton conductivities than Nafion.