Abd Elkodous M, Maegawa Keiichiro, Matsuda Atsunori
Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, 1-1 Hibarigaoka, Tempaku-Cho, Toyohashi, Aichi, 441-8580, Japan.
Next-Generation Energy Systems Group, Centre of Excellence ENSEMBLE3 Sp. z o.o., Wolczynska 133, 01-919, Warsaw, Poland.
Sci Rep. 2024 Jun 27;14(1):14884. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-65955-9.
In this study, polymer-coated anisotropic inorganic nanowires dispersed in PBI matrix were introduced to construct 1D proton conducting channels within PBI. Ionic-liquid and solvothermal methods were used for the synthesis of ZrO and WO NWs, which were coated with PVPA and PDDA polymers to increase their proton conductivity. Our results showed that, prepared membranes have amorphous nature due to the dominating presence of PBI. SEM analysis revealed the average thickness of membrane of about 36 µm. TG/DTA analysis detected lower weight loss of WO NWs (total 2.8%) compared to ZrO NWs (18%). Proton conductivity analysis showed that, PDDA/WO NWs possess relatively 4 times higher proton conductivity (4 10 Scm) compared to PDDA/ZrO NWs (1 10 Scm) at 80 ℃. In addition, PDDA-coated WO NWs dispersed PBI membranes showed the highest fuel cell current density (1.2 A/cm) and power density (215 mW/cm) at 150 ℃ after 24 h which is nearly 2.5 times higher than pure PBI membrane. In addition, they exhibited the lowest in-situ proton resistance of about (0.47 Ω) compared with that of pure PBI membrane (0.8 Ω). Our results are introducing new concepts towards the development of thin and efficient polymer electrolyte membranes for PEM fuel cells.
在本研究中，引入了分散在PBI基体中的聚合物包覆各向异性无机纳米线，以在PBI内构建一维质子传导通道。采用离子液体法和溶剂热法合成ZrO和WO纳米线，并用PVPA和PDDA聚合物对其进行包覆，以提高其质子传导率。我们的结果表明，由于PBI占主导地位，制备的膜具有非晶态性质。扫描电子显微镜分析显示膜的平均厚度约为36 µm。热重/差示热分析检测到，与ZrO纳米线（18%）相比，WO纳米线的失重较低（总计2.8%）。质子传导率分析表明，在80℃时，PDDA/WO纳米线的质子传导率（4×10⁻³ S/cm）是PDDA/ZrO纳米线（1×10⁻³ S/cm）的4倍左右。此外，分散有PDDA包覆的WO纳米线的PBI膜在150℃下24小时后显示出最高的燃料电池电流密度（1.2 A/cm²）和功率密度（215 mW/cm²），这比纯PBI膜高出近2.5倍。此外，与纯PBI膜（0.8 Ω）相比，它们的原位质子电阻最低，约为（0.47 Ω）。我们的结果为开发用于质子交换膜燃料电池的薄且高效的聚合物电解质膜引入了新的概念。
