An in-situ nano-scale swelling-filling strategy to improve overall performance of Nafion membrane for direct methanol fuel cell application

作者：Li, Jing; Fan, Kun; Cai, Weiwei^*; Ma, Liying; Xu, Guoxiao; Xu, Sen; Ma, Liang; Cheng, Hansong^*

来源：Journal of Power Sources, 2016, 332: 37-41.

DOI：10.1016/j.jpowsour.2016.09.108

• Direct methanol fuel cell
• Proton exchange membrane
• Nafion modification
• Nano-scale swelling-filling
• Selectivity
• Mechanical strength

A novel in-situ nano-scale swelling-filling (SF) strategy is proposed to modify commercial Nafion membranes for performance enhancement of direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs). A Nafion membrane was filled in-situ with proton conductive macromolecules (PCMs) in the swelling process of a Nafion membrane in a PCM solution. As a result, both proton conductivity and methanol-permeation resistivity of the SF-treated Naifion membrane was substantially improved with the selectivity nearly doubled compared to the original Nafion membrane. The mechanical strength of the optimal SF treated Nafion membrane was also enforced due to the strong interaction between the PCM fillers and the Nafion molecular chains. As a result, a DMFC equipped with the SF-treated membrane yielded a 33% higher maximum power density than that offered by the DMFC with the original Nafion membrane.

• 出版日期2016-11-15
• 单位中国地质大学（北京）