Preparation of Polybenzimidazole-Based Membranes and Their Potential Applications in the Fuel Cell System

Kyungho Hwang, Jun-Hyun Kim, Sung-Yul Kim and Hongsik Byun
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Kyungho Hwang: Department of Chemical System Engineering, Keimyung University, Daegu 704-701, Korea
Jun-Hyun Kim: Department of Chemistry, Illinois State University, Normal, IL 61790, USA
Sung-Yul Kim: Department of Energy Engineering, Keimyung University, Daegu 704-701, Korea
Hongsik Byun: Department of Chemical System Engineering, Keimyung University, Daegu 704-701, Korea

Energies, 2014, vol. 7, issue 3, 1-12

Abstract: 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.

Keywords: polybenzimidazole (PBI); flexible PBI; cross-linked PBI; proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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