Towards Extrusion of Ionomers to Process Fuel Cell Membranes

Abstract

While Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) membranes are currently prepared by film casting, this paper demonstrates the feasibility of extrusion, a solvent-free alternative process. Thanks to water-soluble process-aid plasticizers, duly selected, it was possible to extrude acidic and alkaline polysulfone ionomers. Additionally, the feasibility to extrude composites was demonstrated. The impact of the plasticizers on the melt viscosity was investigated. Following the extrusion, the plasticizers were fully removed in water. The extrusion was found to impact neither on the ionomer chains, nor on the performances of the membrane. This environmentally friendly process was successfully validated for a variety of high performance ionomers.

Development of sodium-conducting polymer electrolytes: comparison between film-casting and films obtained via green processes

“…Nevertheless, given the Melt Flow Index (MFI) and the sensitivity of POE to chain breaking [39], the molecular weight of POE should be limited to roughly 300,000 g/ mole. This process, well-adapted to industrial upscaling, was successfully used to process ionomers into Fuel Cell Membranes, using water-soluble plasticizers to decrease the MFI [43,44]. On the other hand, hot-pressing is a solvent-free process used for shaping composites and polymers from powders.…”

Blends of Poly (Butylene Adipate-Co-Terephthalate) and Thermoplastic Whey Protein Isolate: A Compatibilization Study

“…Endothermic peak of WPIT occurs at 123 o C, which is due to residual moisture [28] and, in blends, is less pronounced and may be overlapped on the PBAT peaks. WPIT presents an exothermic peak at -34 o C, followed by an endothermic peak at -14 o C that could be related to PEG, as Tg of PEG was described to occur about − 78 o C and its crystallization and melting appear below − 3 o C [49]. Differences in these transitions could be due to interactions between protein and plasticizer.…”

Sodium polymer electrolytes composed of sulfonated polysulfone and macromolecular/molecular solvents for Na-batteries

“…This is surprising as POE oligomers, i.e. PEG-400, have been previously used as aid-process plasticizers to extrude SPSU-Na [29,30]. A sharp decrease in Tg and in melt viscosity, in a wide shear rate range, was observed by blending PEG-400 with SPSU-Na proving their perfect miscibility and allowing easy extrusion to be performed.…”