The effect of sulfonated poly (ether ether ketone) as the electrode ionomer for self-humidifying nanocomposite proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Aylin Rahnavard, Soosan Rowshanzamir, Mohammad Javad Parnian and Gholam Reza Amirkhanlou

Energy, 2015, vol. 82, issue C, 746-757

Abstract: As the electrode ionomer is a key component of the catalyst layer, the introduction of new electrode ionomer would have a significant effect on cell performance. In addition, the content of ionomer in the catalyst electrodes is one of the most important factors to determine Pt catalyst utilization. In this study, SPEEK (sulfonated poly ether ether ketone) was used as ionomer in the electrodes, and the influence of different ionomer content (15, 25 and 35 wt. %) on the electrodes was investigated. Furthermore, different content of platinum (0.3, 0.4 and 0.5 mg. cm−2) was used for the electrode preparation. The degree of sulfonation of SPEEK was determined about 66%. RSM (response surface methodology) was used to arrange the experiments. CV (cyclic voltammetry) experiments were performed to calculate EPSA (electrode platinum surface area) and Pt catalyst utilization. The cyclic voltammetry experiments showed the best result in 25% of ionomer with 0.5 mg. cm−2 of platinum. MEAs (membrane electrode assemblies) were made with the optimum platinum content (0.5 mg. cm−2) and self-humidifying nanocomposite membrane (SPEEK/Pt–Cs2.5H0.5PW12O40) for polarization test. The catalyst layer with 25 wt.% of SPEEK ionomer and 0.5 mg. cm−2 of platinum showed the best I–V result which is in agreement with the CV results.

Keywords: Sulfonated poly ether ether ketone; Self-humidifying nanocomposite; Electrode ionomer; Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544215001103
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:82:y:2015:i:c:p:746-757

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2015.01.086

Access Statistics for this article

Energy is currently edited by Henrik Lund and Mark J. Kaiser

More articles in Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().