Salt‐leaching technique for the synthesis of porous poly(2,5‐benzimidazole) (ABPBI) membranes for fuel cell application

ABSTRACT The first instance of synthesizing porous poly(2,5‐benzimidazole) (ABPBI) membranes for high‐temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (HT‐PEMFCs), using solvent evaporation/salt‐leaching technique, is reported herein. Various ratios of sodium chloride/ABPBI were dissolved in meth...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied polymer science 2018-02, Vol.135 (5), p.n/a
Main Authors: Das, Annesha, Ghosh, Priyanka, Ganguly, Saibal, Banerjee, Dipali, Kargupta, Kajari
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ABPBI
batteries and fuel cells
Capillarity
Conductivity
Electrolytic cells
HT‐PEMFCs
Leaching
Materials science
Membranes
Methanesulfonic acid
polyelectrolytes
Polymers
Porosity
porous membranes
Proton exchange membrane fuel cells
Salt
Sodium chloride
Solvents
Thermal stability
Thermogravimetric analysis
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Summary:ABSTRACT The first instance of synthesizing porous poly(2,5‐benzimidazole) (ABPBI) membranes for high‐temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (HT‐PEMFCs), using solvent evaporation/salt‐leaching technique, is reported herein. Various ratios of sodium chloride/ABPBI were dissolved in methanesulfonic acid and cast into membranes by solvent evaporation, followed by porogen (salt) leaching by water washing. The membranes were characterized using SEM, FTIR, TGA, and DSC. The proton conductivity, water and acid uptake of the membranes were measured and the chemical stability was determined by Fenton's test. SEM images revealed strong dependence of sizes and shapes of pores on the salt/polymer ratios. Surface porosities of membranes were estimated with Nis Elements‐D software; bulk porosities were measured by the fluid resaturation method. Thermogravimetric analysis showed enhanced dopant uptake with introduction of porosity, without the thermal stability of the membrane compromised. Incorporating pores enhanced solvent uptake and retention because of capillarity effects, enhancing proton conductivities of PEMs. Upon acid doping, a maximum conductivity of 0.0181 S/cm was achieved at 130 °C for a porous membrane compared with 0.0022 S/cm for the dense ABPBI membrane at the same temperature. Results indicated that with judicious optimization of porogen/polymer ratios, porous ABPBI membranes formed by salt‐leaching could be suitably used in HT‐PEMFCs. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018, 135, 45773.
ISSN:0021-8995
1097-4628
DOI:10.1002/app.45773