Overcoming the Conductance versus Crossover Trade-off in State-of-the-Art Proton Exchange Fuel-Cell Membranes by Incorporating Atomically Thin Chemical Vapor Deposition Graphene

Moehring, Nicole K.; Mansoor Basha, Abdul Bashith; Chaturvedi, Pavan; Knight, Thomas; Fan, Xiaozong; Pintauro, Peter N.; Boutilier, Michael H.; Karan, Kunal; Kidambi, Piran R.

doi:10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c05725

Title: Overcoming the Conductance versus Crossover Trade-off in State-of-the-Art Proton Exchange Fuel-Cell Membranes by Incorporating Atomically Thin Chemical Vapor Deposition Graphene

Journal Article · 12 January 2025 · Nano Letters

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.nanolett.4c05725 · OSTI ID:2499857

Moehring, Nicole K. ^[1];

^[2]; Chaturvedi, Pavan ^[3]; Knight, Thomas ^[1]; Fan, Xiaozong ^[1]; Pintauro, Peter N. ^[1];

^[4];

^[2];

^[5]

Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN (United States)
University of Calgary, AB (Canada)
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN (United States); Vanderbilt Institute of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, Nashville, TN (United States)
Western University, London, ON (Canada)
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN (United States); University of Texas at Austin, TX (United States)

Permeance–selectivity trade-offs are inherent to polymeric membranes. In fuel cells, thinner proton exchange membranes (PEMs) could enable higher proton conductance and increased power density with lower area-specific resistance (ASR), smaller ohmic losses, and lower ionomer cost. However, reducing thickness is accompanied by an increase in undesired species crossover harming performance and long-term efficiency. Here, we show that incorporating atomically thin monolayer graphene synthesized via scalable chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and tunable defect density into PEMs (Nafion, ~5–25 μm thick) can allow for reduced H₂ crossover (~34–78% of Nafion of a similar thickness) while maintaining adequate areal proton conductance for applications (>4 S cm^–2). In contrast to most prior work using >50 μm symmetric Nafion sandwich structures, we elucidate the interplay of graphene defect density and Nafion proton transport resistance on the performance of Nafion|graphene composite membranes and find high-quality low-defect density CVD graphene (G) supported on Nafion 211 (~25 μm); i.e., N211|G has a high areal proton conductance (~6.1 S cm^–2) and the lowest H₂ crossover (~0.7 mA cm^–2). Fully functional centimeter-scale N211|G fuel-cell membranes demonstrate performance comparable to that of state-of-the-art Nafion N211 at room temperature as well as standard operating conditions (~80 °C, ~150–250 kPa-abs) with H₂/air (power density ~0.57–0.63 W cm^–2) and H₂/O₂ feed (power density ~1.4–1.62 W cm^–2) and markedly reduced H₂ crossover (~53–57%).

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Research Organization:: Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation CAREER; USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Office of Sustainable Transportation. Hydrogen Fuel Cell Technologies Office (HFTO); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: EE0011106; SC0022915

OSTI ID:: 2499857

Journal Information:: Nano Letters, Journal Name: Nano Letters Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 25; ISSN 1530-6984

Publisher:: American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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25 ENERGY STORAGE
Nafion
chemical vapor deposition (CVD)
conductance vs crossover trade-off
crossover reduction
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electrical conductivity
fluoropolymers
fuel cell
graphene
membranes
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two dimensional materials

Title: Overcoming the Conductance versus Crossover Trade-off in State-of-the-Art Proton Exchange Fuel-Cell Membranes by Incorporating Atomically Thin Chemical Vapor Deposition Graphene

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