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Amy's Project Page - RISE Summer 2006 |
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Intern: Amy Nabel, Chemistry,
UC Santa Barbara
Mentor: Jimmy O'Dea
Faculty Supervisor: Steven Buratto
Department: Chemistry and Biochemistry |
RECAST NAFION-SILICA POLYMER COMPOSITES FOR FUEL CELL APPLICATION
Fuel cells are an attractive alternative to the combustion of fossil fuels
for energy production. Most current proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells
use the polymer Nafion as the fuel cell electrolyte. While Nafion has the
advantages of being a strong proton conductor and having good mechanical
stability, it depends strongly on the presence of water to conduct protons,
limiting the humidity and temperature at which the fuel cell can be run.
Current research is being done to recast Nafion and inorganic-Nafion composite
membranes from solution in order to increase proton conductivity and allow the
membrane to be used at lower humidities and higher temperatures.
A variety of Nafion and composite Nafion-silica polymer membranes were prepared
by recasting from solution. Properties of the membranes were characterized
with the use of thermogravimetric analysis and a PEM fuel cell. Using these
methods, water content and potential voltages were found for certain recast
membranes. Water content increased with the addition of silica to the recast
membrane. There were no significant changes in water content between
commercially available Nafion membranes and the non-composite recast membranes. Nafion membranes recast from water-based solution had higher potential voltages than commercially available Nafion of comparable thickness.
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