Nafion®–sepiolite composite membranes for improved proton exchange membrane fuel cell performance

Abstract

et al.. Nafion®-sepiolite composite membranes for improved proton exchange membrane fuel cell performance.

Improvement of Nafion®-sepiolite composite membranes for PEMFC with sulfo-fluorinated sepiolite

“…First, epoxy and -SO 3 Na groups were grafted according to the process described previously to prepare sulfonated sepiolite [59]. An additional procedure was then followed to add fluorinated groups on sulfonated sepiolite.…”

“…The membranes (13×13cm²) were prepared by casting, following the protocol described in an earlier publication [59], starting from an Ion Power DE2021 Nafion® dispersion. The only difference stands in the type of sepiolite added in the dispersion.…”

“…Sepiolite is particularly interesting because of its fibrous morphology. We have shown that sepiolite can increase the mechanical properties of Nafion® membrane while significantly decreasing its sensitivity to relative humidity, especially at intermediate temperature [59]. Once functionalized to make it proton conductive, it allows improving fuel cells performance at 100°C.…”

“…Smectite clays like natural montmorillonite [43,44,45,46,47,48] or synthetic laponite [49,50,51,52,53] have received much attention for their barrier properties. Fibrous ones, palygorskite [54,55] or sepiolite [56,57,58,59], have been less studied. Sepiolite is particularly interesting because of its fibrous morphology.…”

Preparation and Properties of Poly(2,5-benzimidazole)/Sulfonated Sepiolite Composite Proton Exchange Membrane

“…Beauger et al prepared Nafion/sepiolite composite membranes to improve mechanical properties and proton conductivity at high temperature and low relative humidity conditions [6] . Sepiolite, seldomly used as fillers in proton exchange membrane, is chosen to improve performance of ABPBI (another type of PBI membranes).…”