Polymer electrolyte membranes for fuel cells that are better than Nafion, a proton conducting membrane in current use, have been made.
Nafion membranes are costly and the temperature at which they can operate is limited to 100oC. The new membranes are made of aromatic triblock copolymers and show better proton conductivity than Nafion and superior thermal, oxidative and hydrolytic stabilities, say the researchers.
Read this ‘HOT’ EES article today:
A New Class of Highly-conducting Polymer Electrolyte Membranes: Aromatic ABA Triblock Copolymers
N Li, S Y Lee, Y-L Liu, Y M Lee and M D Guiver, Energy Environ. Sci., 2011
DOI: 10.1039/c1ee02556b
