Thin Film Morphological Characteristics of a Perfluorinated Anion Exchange Membrane

Journal Article · Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · ECS Transactions (Online)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1149/09208.0715ecst· OSTI ID:1596249

Divekar, Ashutosh G. ^[1]; Buggy, Nora C. ^[2]; Dudenas, Peter J. ^[3]; Kusoglu, Ahmet ^[3]; Seifert, Soenke ^[4]; Pivovar, Bryan S. ^[5]; Herring, Andrew M. ^[2]

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1. Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States); National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
2. Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
4. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS)
5. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Anion exchange membranes (AEMs) are a promising technology for fuel cell applications. Most of the research done to date was focused on membrane development, electrode fabrication, or cell performance. Studies of the polymer catalyst interface are needed in order to advance the science of these devices and achieve further improvements. In this work we have studied these interfacial properties using grazing-incidence small-angle x-ray scattering (GISAXS). Thin films of a perfluorinated anion exchange polymer were spin cast onto bare, or silver or platinum coated flat silicon substrates. From the GISAXS data, we can conclude that the polymer chains align parallel to the plain silicon or silver coated substrate at higher thicknesses, >17 nm and, >13 nm respectively. However, on the coated platinum substrate the alignment is somewhere between parallel and perpendicular. The in-plane alignment of ionomer on the surface constrains the swelling of water channels which affects the transport of reactants and products.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source (APS); National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Transportation Office. Fuel Cell Technologies Office
• Grant/Contract Number: AC02-06CH11357; AC36-08GO28308
• OSTI ID: 1596249
• Report Number(s): NREL/JA--5900-75903; MainId:24693; UUID:fc8ac4e4-f73d-ea11-9c2f-ac162d87dfe5; MainAdminID:13167
• Journal Information: ECS Transactions (Online), Journal Name: ECS Transactions (Online) Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 92; ISSN 1938-6737
• Publisher: Electrochemical Society
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
anion exchange membranes
fuel cells
interfacial properties