Journal
ENERGIES
Volume 7, Issue 3, Pages 1721-1732Publisher
MDPI
DOI: 10.3390/en7031721
Keywords
polybenzimidazole (PBI); flexible PBI; cross-linked PBI; proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC)
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Funding
- Ministry of Knowledge Economy [10038355]
- Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT) [10038355] Funding Source: Korea Institute of Science & Technology Information (KISTI), National Science & Technology Information Service (NTIS)
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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.
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