Preparation of Polybenzimidazole-Based Membranes and Their Potential Applications in the Fuel Cell System

Energies

Hongsik Byun¹  Kyungho Hwang¹  Jun-Hyun Kim²  Sung-Yul Kim³ 

[1] Department of Chemical System Engineering, Keimyung University, Daegu 704-701, Korea;Department of Chemistry, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790, USA;Department of Energy Engineering, Keimyung University, Daegu 704-701, Korea;

关键词: polybenzimidazole (PBI);    flexible PBI;    cross-linked PBI;    proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC);   

DOI  :  10.3390/en7031721

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Various polybenzimidazole (PBI)-based ion-exchange films were prepared and thoroughly characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, proton conductivity, and water uptake for possible use as fuel cell membranes. Upon the increase in the flexibility of the PBI-based polymer films (e.g., poly(oxyphenylene benzimidazole) (OPBI) and sulfonated OPBI (s-OPBI)), the membranes exhibited slightly improved proton conductivity, but significantly increased dimensional changes. To reduce the dimensional changes (i.e., increase the stability), the cross-linking of the polymer films (e.g., cross-linked OPBI (c-OPBI) and sulfonated c-OPBI (sc-OPBI)) was accomplished using phosphoric acid. Interestingly, the sc-OPBI membrane possessed a greatly increased proton conductivity (0.082 S/cm), which is comparable to that of the commercially available Nafion membrane (0.09 S/cm), while still maintaining slightly better properties regarding the dimensional change and water uptake than those of the Nafion membrane.

【 授权许可】

Unknown