More sustainable electricity generation in hot and dry fuel cells with a novel hybrid membrane of Nafion/nano-silica/hydroxyl ionic liquid

Yan Li, Yan Shi, Nada Mehio, Mingsheng Tan, Zhiyong Wang, Xiaohong Hu, George Z. Chen, Sheng Dai, Xianbo Jin

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

52 Scopus citations

Abstract

A new hybrid proton exchange membrane (PEM) has been prepared from hydroxyl functionalized imidazolium ionic liquid (IL-OH), Nafion and nano-SiO2. The IL-OH, with a hydroxyl group that acts as both a proton acceptor and donor, forms strong hydrogen bonds with both Nafion and nano-SiO2, resulting in an effective hydrogen bond network in the ternary membrane. Such an anhydrous hydrogen-bond network, which is unknown previously, endows the PEMs with higher proton conductivity, greater thermal stability and surprisingly a more robust mechanical performance than PEMs consisting of conventional ionic liquids. The resulting PEMs have a tensile strength that is more than twice as strong as recast Nafion and an anhydrous ionic conductivity of ∼55 mS cm−1 at temperatures above 160 °C, with a proton transfer number of ∼0.9. A laboratory assembled H2–O2 fuel cell employing this new PEM delivered a power density of 340 and 420 mW cm−2 at 160 and 180 °C, respectively.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)451-458
Number of pages8
JournalApplied Energy
Volume175
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 1 2016

Funding

We thank the NSFC and MOE of China , Wuhan University , and Ningbo Municipal Government for financial support (Grant Nos.: 21173161 , NCET-11-0397 , the 3315 Plan and the IAMET Special Fund , 2014A35001-1 ). NM and SD were supported by Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures, and Transport (FIRST) Center, an Energy Frontier Research Center – U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences .

Keywords

  • Hydrogen-bonds
  • Hydroxyl ionic liquids
  • Intermediate-temperature fuel cells
  • Nafion
  • Proton exchange membranes

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