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    In situ formed phosphoric acid/phosphosilicate nanoclusters in the exceptional enhancement of durability of polybenzimidazole membrane fuel cells at elevated high temperatures

    Access Status
    Open access via publisher
    Authors
    Zhang, J.
    Aili, D.
    Bradley, J.
    Kuang, H.
    Pan, C.
    De Marco, Roland
    Li, Q.
    Jiang, S.
    Date
    2017
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citation
    Zhang, J. and Aili, D. and Bradley, J. and Kuang, H. and Pan, C. and De Marco, R. and Li, Q. et al. 2017. In situ formed phosphoric acid/phosphosilicate nanoclusters in the exceptional enhancement of durability of polybenzimidazole membrane fuel cells at elevated high temperatures. Journal of the Electrochemical Society. 164 (14): pp. F1615-F1625.
    Source Title
    Journal of the Electrochemical Society
    DOI
    10.1149/2.1051714jes
    Additional URLs
    https://orbit.dtu.dk/en/publications/in-situ-formed-phosphoric-acidphosphosilicate-nanoclusters-in-the
    ISSN
    0013-4651
    School
    Fuels and Energy Technology Institute
    Funding and Sponsorship
    http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP150102025
    http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP150102044
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/65837
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    © 2017 The Electrochemical Society. Most recently, we developed a phosphotungstic acid impregnated mesoporous silica (PWA-meso-silica) and phosphoric acid doped polybenzimidazole (PA/PBI) composite membrane for use in high temperature fuel cells and achieved exceptional durability under a constant current load of 200 mA cm -2 at 200°C for over 2700 h. In this work, the fundamental role of PWA-meso-silica in enhancing the stability of the PA/PBI membrane has been investigated. The microstructure, the PA uptake, swelling ratio, mechanical property and conductivity of PA/PBI/PWA-meso-silica composite membranes depend on the loading of PWA-meso-silica. The results indicate that the optimum limit of PWA-meso-silica loading in the PA/PBI membranes is 15 wt%. Detaled analysis indicates that the mesoporous structure of the PWA-meso-silica framework disintegrates, forming phosphosilicate phases within the PBI polymeric matrix during fuel cell operation at 200°C. The in situ formed phosphosilicates can immobilize a significant amount of PA, forming PA/phosphosilicate nanoclusters that possess high proton conductivity (e.g., 7.2 × 10 -2 S cm -1 at 250°C) and stability and substantially inhibits acid leaching out of themembrane. The substantially reduced acid leaching also alleviates the excess acid in the catalyst layer, reducing the detrimental effect of excess acid on the agglomeration of Pt catalysts especially in the cathode catalyst layer. These phenomena are responsible for the exceptional stability in proton conductivity as well as the significantly reduced agglomeration of Pt nanoparticles in the anode and cathode catalyst layers of PA/PBI/PWA-meso-silica composite membrane fuel cells.

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