An overview of proton exchange membranes for fuel cells: Materials and manufacturing

Research Progress, Trends, and Current State of Development on PEMFC-New Insights from a Bibliometric Analysis and Characteristics of Two Decades of Research Output

“…One of the major components of the PEMFC is the proton exchange membrane, which was first to the Gemini spacecraft via a polystyrene sulfonic acid membrane in 1960 [74]. Membranes that are desired are those with properties such as decreased fuel and oxidant permeability, compatibility with different fuels, excellent water retention properties, biodegradable, better ion conductivity, facile synthesis, thermal and electrochemical stability, as well as practical mechanical properties to grow in thin structural morphology [75]. The lower cost of fabrication and long life span, while maintaining the properties mentioned earlier, are all key elements of an effective PEM.…”

Hydroxide ion-conducting metal–organic frameworks for anion-exchange membrane applications

“…Although PEMFCs equipped with Nafion® membranes are a mature commercial technology with a fair efficiency, they have the drawback of, by virtue of the ion transport process, requiring a highly acidic, corrosive environment as electrolyte. 12 Besides the obvious health and safety, and environmental issues related to the use of low pH solutions in potential everyday technologies, the strongly acidic environment also requires the use of components that withstand the corrosive conditions, which is a particularly penalising limitation for the electrocatalyst, particularly on the anode, for which the costly and increasingly scarce Pt is employed. 13 On the other hand, more earth-abundant, low-cost electrocatalysts, such as Fe or Ni, have been shown to display comparable performance to Pt, provided they operate in an alkaline environment wherein they are sufficiently stable.…”

“…While various materials classes are being explored as ionexchange membranes for fuel-cell applications 12,19 , it is out of the scope of this review paper to evaluate the current state-ofart technology and recent progress in all classes. It should be noted however that there are two classic materials classes that are typically in the focus of exploration, i.e.…”

Oxygen Plasma-Mediated Microstructured Hydrocarbon Membrane for Improving Interface Adhesion and Mass Transport in Polymer Electrolyte Fuel Cells

“…However, the fluorinating process for the fabrication of the membrane causes environmental problems and a high material cost of $500 m −2 or more (for commercially available Nafion membranes), and the high gas permeability of the membrane causes the chemical degradation of MEA. 6,7 Great efforts have been made to develop cheaper membranes with superior membrane properties to commercial PFSAs. Primarily, nonfluorinated hydrocarbon-based (HC) PEMs have been widely studied.…”

“…Among the expensive materials for MEA, perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) is the most widely used proton conductive polymer due to its high conductivity, chemical stability, and mechanical robustness. However, the fluorinating process for the fabrication of the membrane causes environmental problems and a high material cost of $500 m –2 or more (for commercially available Nafion membranes), and the high gas permeability of the membrane causes the chemical degradation of MEA. , …”