KCS

A proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) has been considered as one of the most promising clean energy production systems and as a suitable primary power source for transportation and stationary applications. The commercial application of PEMFC, however, has been limited by some issues such as cost, performance, and stability. Currently, the typical PEMFC uses perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) polymer membranes, for instance Nafion and its derivatives. Even though PFSA polymer membranes have demonstrated good performance and stability below 90 °C, it still has several obstacles under elevated temperature conditions. PEMFCs operated under high temperature and anhydrous conditions provide valuable advantages including high tolerance to impurities in the fuels, reduction of the amount of noble metal catalyst on the electrode due to fast reaction kinetics, and construction of compact system without external humidifiers. In the present study, we prepared SDF-F/poly[(N-vinylimidazole)-co-(3-methacryloxypropyl-trimethoxysilane)](poly(VI-co-MPS))/PTFE membrane which is doped with phosphoric acid to form silicate phosphor as a proton carrier. We used porous poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) as a reinforcement material. The prepared membrane was characterized by various analytical tools. The thermal stability and conductivity of the membrane were comparable to those of PBI. Single cell test for SDF-F/poly(VI-co-MPS)/PTFE membrane was carried out at 150, 170, and 190 °C to examine the cell performance by measuring cell voltage degradation and phosphoric acid loss..