Some properties of perfluorosulphonated ionomer membranes contaminated by a series of 10 counter ions were investigated by infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), thermogravimetric analysis coupled to mass spectroscopy (TG-MS), and dynamic mechanical spectrometry (DMA). Distinctive parameters were extracted and regarded as a function of the cations' properties. An optimum interaction between sulfonate group and cation was found for cations with Lewis Acid Strength (LAS) in the 0.2-0.3 range. This critical value is found to be the Lewis Basic Strength (LBS-SO À 3 ) of the sulfonate anion in Nafion membrane. Thermal stability analyses also point out the influence of this cation parameter on the polymer degradation process. Cations with LAS values lower than LBS-SO À 3 improve the thermal stability of the side chains while cations with LAS values higher than LBS-SO À 3 enhance the thermal degradation. Moreover, the temperature of the modulus drop increases with the LAS of the counter ion. For cations with values lower 0.5, the transition is attributed to the glass relaxation of the polymer while for cations showing LAS values higher than 0.5, the loss of stiffness originates from the polymer thermal degradation process. The overview of the experimental data allows the definition of calibration curves as a function of the cations' LAS.

Changes in a perfluorosulfonated acid polymer membrane in membrane electrode assemblies were studied after different times under stationary conditions in fuel cells. A large series of characterizations demonstrated changes in the morphology, mechanical behavior, and thermal stability upon aging. Overall, the membrane evolution could be mainly attributed to both chemical degradation and cationic contamination. The reduction in the membrane thickness, detected by scanning electron microscopy, was ascribed to a radical unzipping mechanism and polymer chain erosion after 900 h in service. An additional monotonic decrease in the number of C tertiary F groups was observed even at 400 h. In parallel, membranes were cation-contaminated, and this led to drastic changes in the thermal and mechanical properties in the first stage of fuel-cell operation. The pollution cations were shown to have Lewis acid strengths close to 0.25 and thus strongly interacted with sulfonate anions of the membrane. The kinetic dependence of these membrane modifications and the influence of the platinum band were also examined.

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