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Anion Exchange Membrane Reinforced with Polyethylene Substrate for Alkaline Fuel Cell Applications

Sustainable Polymer & Energy. 2023, 1(3), 10012; https://doi.org/10.35534/spe.2023.10012
Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed Mahmoud 1,2    Keijiro Nagahara 3    Kenji Miyatake 1,4,5 *   
1
Clean Energy Research Center, University of Yamanashi, Kofu 400-8510, Japan
2
Chemistry Department, Faculty of Science, Sohag University, Sohag 82524, Egypt
3
Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Medicine and Engineering, University of Yamanashi, Kofu 400-8510, Japan
4
Fuel Cell Nanomaterials Center, University of Yamanashi, Kofu 400-0021, Japan
5
Department of Applied Chemistry, Waseda University, Tokyo 169-8555, Japan
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 07 Aug 2023    Accepted: 18 Sep 2023    Published: 25 Sep 2023   

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Abstract

To enhance mechanical robustness of our in-house anion exchange membrane (QPAF-4), the reinforcement technique was applied using ozone-treated, porous polyethylene (PE) thin film (Toray SETELA) as a substrate. Homogenous and flexible reinforced membranes (QPAF-4-PE, 15–20 µm thick) were obtained by bar-coating method. The cross-sectional SEM image and EDS analysis revealed triple-layered (sandwich-like) structure without detectable pinholes. The QPAF-4-PE with ion exchange capacity (IEC) of 1.48 meq·g−1 exhibited lower water uptake (15 wt% at 90% relative humidity) and slightly lower hydroxide ion conductivity (71 mS·cm−1 at 80 ℃) than those of the pristine QPAF-4 (IEC = 1.84 meq·g−1, 25 wt% water uptake and 82 mS·cm−1 of the conductivity). The reinforced QPAF-4-PE exhibited slightly higher viscoelasticity (particularly, in MD direction) due to the suppressed water absorbability. Furthermore, the elongation at break increased by 9.8% in TD direction and 6.3% in MD direction. An H2/O2 fuel cell using QPAF-4-PE as membrane was investigated at different back-pressure, in which the cell with 100 kPa back-pressure onto the cathode side only achieved the maximum performance (176 mW·cm−2 at current density of 364 mA·cm−2) and the longest durability for (>200 h) at a constant current density of 100 mA·cm−2 maintaining 0.43 V of the cell voltage (67% remaining). The durability was eight times longer than that with ambient pressure and two times longer than that with back-pressure on both sides.

Keywords

Reinforced composite membranes (RCMs); Anion exchange membranes; Hydroxide ion conductivity; Alkaline stability; Alkaline fuel cells; In-situ durability

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© 2024 by the authors; licensee SCIEPublish, SCISCAN co. Ltd. This article is an open access article distributed under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).