Development of a High-Performance Proton Exchange Membrane: From Structural Optimization to Quantity Production
Weisheng Yu, Zijuan Ge, Kaiyu Zhang, Xian Liang, Xiaolin Ge, Huijuan Wang, Ming Li, Xianhe Shen, Yan Xu, Liang Wu, Tongwen Xu
Abstract
Quantity production of low-cost and high-performance proton exchange membranes (PEMs) used in hydrogen fuel cells is the centerpiece step toward the hydrogen future. Herein, we developed a facile synthesis approach for this task. The prepared PEM breaks through the unfavorable trade-off between thermal-dimensional stability and proton conductivity due to the adequately designed hierarchical polymer structure composed of flexible ionic side-chains anchored onto twisted rigid backbone. Microscale topology structure analyses and molecular dynamics simulations indicate that the hydrated ionic groups self-assemble to form well-connected proton nanochannels. More importantly, the quantity production of the PEM is allowed with a pilot-scale production line. The PEM reaches a peak power density of 1.2 W cm–2 under the realistic low fuel gas flow in a single-cell of H2/O2 fuel cell. Additionally, the PEM maintains profitable fuel cell performance under lower relative humidity (1.1 and 0.9 W cm–2 peak power density at 80 and 60% relative humidity, respectively). In short, we report that a canonical form from the structural optimization of a PEM to the pilot-scale production in which the micromorphology-proton conduction relationship is fully explored.