Selim Asmaa, Szijjártó Gábor Pál, Tompos András
Institute of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Excellence Centre of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Magyar Tudósok Körútja 2, 1117 Budapest, Hungary.
Chemical Engineering and Pilot Plat Department, Engineering and Renewable Energy Research Institute, National Research Centre, 33 El Bohouth Street, Giza 12622, Egypt.
Polymers (Basel). 2022 Aug 18;14(16):3385. doi: 10.3390/polym14163385.
Perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) polymers such as Nafion are the most frequently used Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) in PEM fuel cells. Nafion XL is one of the most recently developed membranes designed to enhance performance by employing a mechanically reinforced layer in the architecture and a chemical stabilizer. The influence of the water and acid pre-treatment process on the physicochemical properties of Nafion XL membrane and Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) was investigated. The obtained results indicate that the pre-treated membranes have higher water uptake and dimensional swelling ratios, i.e., higher hydrophilicity, while the untreated membrane demonstrated a higher ionic exchange capacity. Furthermore, the conductivity of the acid pre-treated Nafion XL membrane was ~ 9.7% higher compared to the untreated membrane. Additionally, the maximum power densities obtained at 80 °C using acid pre-treatment were ~ 0.8 and 0.93 W/cm for re-cast Nafion and Nafion XL, respectively. However, the maximum generated powers for untreated membranes at the same condition were 0.36 and 0.66 W/cm for re-cast Nafion and Nafion XL, respectively. The overall results indicated that the PEM's pre-treatment process is essential to enhance performance.
全氟磺酸（PFSA）聚合物，如Nafion，是质子交换膜燃料电池（PEMFC）中最常用的质子交换膜（PEM）。Nafion XL是最近开发的膜之一，旨在通过在结构中采用机械增强层和化学稳定剂来提高性能。研究了水和酸预处理过程对Nafion XL膜和膜电极组件（MEA）物理化学性质的影响。所得结果表明，预处理后的膜具有更高的吸水率和尺寸溶胀率，即更高的亲水性，而未处理的膜表现出更高的离子交换容量。此外，酸预处理的Nafion XL膜的电导率比未处理的膜高约9.7%。此外，使用酸预处理在80°C下获得的重铸Nafion和Nafion XL的最大功率密度分别约为0.8和0.93W/cm²。然而，在相同条件下，未处理膜的重铸Nafion和Nafion XL的最大发电功率分别为0.36和0.66W/cm²。总体结果表明，PEM的预处理过程对于提高性能至关重要。
