“…These chemically and physically modified PFSA membranes, such as Nafion HP, Nafion XL, and Gore-Select, have proven to be much more durable than unmodified PFSA membranes in fuel cell operations (16)(17)(18)(19)(20). The mechanism underlying their increased durability has also been investigated (21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27). In a previous study, Nafion XL membranes exhibited outstanding durability in a humidity cycle test for >20,000 cycles, but they achieved only 9,900 cycles in the combined durability test (the abovementioned DOE protocol), presumably because they underwent chemical degradation under such severe conditions (28).…”