Potential of kaolin as filler in Nafion composite membranes for PEM fuel cells

Fahriye Dönmez Dayı and Nezihe Ayas

Renewable Energy, 2024, vol. 237, issue PC

Abstract: Nafion is one of the polymer materials used as a polymer exchange membrane (PEM) in fuel cells due to its high proton conductivity, chemical stability, and fuel cell performance. However, Nafion membranes still have notable disadvantages, such as decreased proton conductivity at high temperatures and low humidity. One of the methods applied to overcome these limitations is to add inorganic compounds to the Nafion matrix. In this study, kaolin, a hygroscopic clay, was incorporated into Nafion for the first time to enhance proton conductivity of the membrane. Kaolin-doped composite membranes (5 %, 10 %, and 15 % kaolin by weight) were produced through the solution casting method and analyzed using various characterization techniques. The synthesized membranes exhibited significantly higher water uptake, lower swelling, higher proton conductivity, and better mechanical properties compared to recast Nafion. Among all composite membranes, Nafion-Kaolin-15 demonstrated a proton conductivity of 0.330 S/cm, which is a remarkable enhancement of 1.43 times compared to recast Nafion. These findings revealed the potential of kaolin-doped Nafion membranes for future applications in PEMFCs.

Keywords: Composite nafion membranes; Kaolin; Proton conductivity; Chemical stability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148124018226
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:renene:v:237:y:2024:i:pc:s0960148124018226

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2024.121754

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

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