Issue 11, 2024

Four-arm star-shaped high-performance poly(aryl piperidine) anion exchange membranes for fuel cells

Abstract

Anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) are a new generation of energy conversion technology that excels proton exchange membrane fuel cells in terms of oxygen reduction kinetics. The development of high-performance and durable anion exchange membranes (AEMs) has been a top priority for AEMFCs. In this work, we design and fabricate a novel series of AEMs by co-polymerizing tetraphenylmethane with 1-methyl-4-piperidone and p-terphenyl and subsequent quaternization of the resulting polymer. This strategy creates four-arm star shaped polymer components in the fabricated AEMs so that the polymer chain packing density is lowered, creating a high fraction of free volume in the membrane, which can help build ion channels with lower OH transport resistance. The resulting qPTTP-7 AEM shows a markedly improved ion conductivity (142.71 mS cm−1 at 80 °C). After 1000, 2000 and 3000 h treatments in 1 M NaOH at 80 °C, the membrane showed an ion conductivity retention rate of 98%, 93% and 86%, respectively. With such an AEM, the H2–O2 single cell yields a peak power density of 1.37 W cm−2 at 80 °C, and the fuel cell can operate at a constant current over 150 h without much voltage decay.

Graphical abstract: Four-arm star-shaped high-performance poly(aryl piperidine) anion exchange membranes for fuel cells

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
05 Jan 2024
Accepted
06 Feb 2024
First published
09 Feb 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2024,12, 6341-6350

Four-arm star-shaped high-performance poly(aryl piperidine) anion exchange membranes for fuel cells

L. Han, S. Gong, X. Zhang, M. Yang, X. Yan, G. He and F. Zhang, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2024, 12, 6341 DOI: 10.1039/D4TA00092G

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