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Title: Rational design of polyaromatic ionomers for alkaline membrane fuel cells with >1 W cm-2 power density

Abstract

Alkaline membrane fuel cells (AMFCs) show great potential as alternative energy conversion devices to acidic proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Over the last decade, there has been significant progress in the development of alkaline-stable polyaromatic materials for membrane separators and ionomeric binders for AMFCs. However, the AMFC performance using polyaromatic ionomers is generally poor, ca. a peak power density of <400 mW cm-2. We report a rational design for polyaromatic ionomers which can minimize undesirable phenyl group interaction with hydrogen oxidation catalysts. The AMFC using a newly designed aryl ether-free poly(fluorene) ionomer exhibits a peak power density of 1.46 W cm-2, which is approaching that of Nafion-based PEMFCs. This study further discusses the remaining challenges of high-performing AMFCs.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, NY (United States). Dept. of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
  3. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States). Dept. of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Center for Micro-Engineered Materials (CMEM)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E); USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Sustainable Transportation Office. Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO); USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Scientific User Facilities Division
OSTI Identifier:
1473818
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1473989
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-18-22341
Journal ID: ISSN 1754-5692
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC52-06NA25396; AC02-05CH11231; FOA-0001478
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Energy & Environmental Science
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 11; Journal Issue: 11; Journal ID: ISSN 1754-5692
Publisher:
Royal Society of Chemistry
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION; 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; Energy Sciences

Citation Formats

Maurya, Sandip, Noh, Sangtaik, Matanovic, Ivana, Park, Eun Joo, Narvaez Villarrubia, Claudia, Martinez, Ulises, Han, Junyoung, Bae, Chulsung, and Kim, Yu Seung. Rational design of polyaromatic ionomers for alkaline membrane fuel cells with >1 W cm-2 power density. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1039/C8EE02192A.
Maurya, Sandip, Noh, Sangtaik, Matanovic, Ivana, Park, Eun Joo, Narvaez Villarrubia, Claudia, Martinez, Ulises, Han, Junyoung, Bae, Chulsung, & Kim, Yu Seung. Rational design of polyaromatic ionomers for alkaline membrane fuel cells with >1 W cm-2 power density. United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8EE02192A
Maurya, Sandip, Noh, Sangtaik, Matanovic, Ivana, Park, Eun Joo, Narvaez Villarrubia, Claudia, Martinez, Ulises, Han, Junyoung, Bae, Chulsung, and Kim, Yu Seung. Mon . "Rational design of polyaromatic ionomers for alkaline membrane fuel cells with >1 W cm-2 power density". United States. https://doi.org/10.1039/C8EE02192A. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1473818.
@article{osti_1473818,
title = {Rational design of polyaromatic ionomers for alkaline membrane fuel cells with >1 W cm-2 power density},
author = {Maurya, Sandip and Noh, Sangtaik and Matanovic, Ivana and Park, Eun Joo and Narvaez Villarrubia, Claudia and Martinez, Ulises and Han, Junyoung and Bae, Chulsung and Kim, Yu Seung},
abstractNote = {Alkaline membrane fuel cells (AMFCs) show great potential as alternative energy conversion devices to acidic proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Over the last decade, there has been significant progress in the development of alkaline-stable polyaromatic materials for membrane separators and ionomeric binders for AMFCs. However, the AMFC performance using polyaromatic ionomers is generally poor, ca. a peak power density of <400 mW cm-2. We report a rational design for polyaromatic ionomers which can minimize undesirable phenyl group interaction with hydrogen oxidation catalysts. The AMFC using a newly designed aryl ether-free poly(fluorene) ionomer exhibits a peak power density of 1.46 W cm-2, which is approaching that of Nafion-based PEMFCs. This study further discusses the remaining challenges of high-performing AMFCs.},
doi = {10.1039/C8EE02192A},
journal = {Energy & Environmental Science},
number = 11,
volume = 11,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}

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Cited by: 188 works
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Figures / Tables:

Figure 1 Figure 1: AMFC performance under H2/O2 conditions using polyaromatic ionomers; the performance of AMFCs using grafted PVBA ionomers are shown for comparison. Data taken from refs. [57-60] for PVBA, refs. [19-21, 52] for PAES, refs. [29, 45, 46, 53-55] for PPO, and refs. [19, 32, 34, 56] for PP.

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