An overview on the development of nanofiber‐based as polymer electrolyte membrane and electrocatalyst in fuel cell application

Abstract

Summary Fuel cell technology has matured, and much emphasis has been placed on commercialization efforts for these systems, whether for stationary or portable applications. Several factors influence commercialization success, including the use of strong, durable, and cost‐effective material technology. The two most important components in a fuel cell are the catalyst and proton exchange membrane. In addition, some crucial characteristics need to be possessed: high catalytic activity, high surface area, high proton conductivity, low fuel permeability, and increased stability chemical, mechanical, and thermal. The following properties will require the development of catalysts and membranes in the nano‐scale structure. Nanofiber is a unique nanostructure that has been investigated in fuel cell technology to produce the catalyst and proton exchange membrane. The electrospinning technique has gained prominence to fabricate nanofibers because of its ease to use, simplicity, and wide range of applications. Thus, the main objective of this review is to provide an overview of the electrospinning process by explaining the operating principle, parameters influencing the electrospinning technique, and application of nanofibers in the fuel cell, specifically for the fabrication of electrolyte electrospun nanofiber membranes and fibrous materials as an electrochemical catalyst in fuel cell applications. This review also discusses the benefits of the investigated nanofiber materials and the challenges and prospects of the electrospinning technique in a fuel cell.

Biomimetic, antiadhesive surface structure inspired by the calamistra setae of cribellate spiders for electrospun nanofiber handling

“…combination of electrospinning with traditional chemical and physical methods (Du et al, 2022). These developments have greatly promoted the applications of electrospun nanofibers in a wide variety of fields such as medicine (Wu et al, 2017), filtration (Avossa et al, 2021), textile (Gorji et al, 2012), battery (Zhang et al, 2016) and fuel cell (Yusoff and Shaari, 2021) manufacturing, and optical sensor fabrication (Wang et al, 2002). However, very limited attention has been paid to a key issue for application, this is, anti-adhesion of electrospun nanofibers on the subject's surfaces, which is also useful for developing a fine fibrous collector.…”

Electrospun nanofibers synthesis enhancing the activity of energy storage devices/electrochemical and biosensor applications

“…The researchers demonstrated a high level of agreement between the simulated and experimental results, indicating a detection threshold sensitivity of 10. The aforementioned discovery highlights the significant potential in the identification of cellular dimensions [274].…”

A State-of-Art on the Development of Nafion-Based Membrane for Performance Improvement in Direct Methanol Fuel Cells

“…Hydrophilic PVA, which is frequently used to separate alcohol and water in the pervaporation process, has also been considered a suitable choice for modifying Nafion. PVA has a higher water affinity relative to methanol [ 58 ], and it is a biodegradable semi-crystalline synthetic polymer with excellent thermal and chemical stability [ 59 ]. The abundance of hydroxyl groups present in PVA enables it to create hydrogen bonds with sulfonic acid groups of Nafion, allowing chemical changes in the polymer chain to take place, resulting in excellent film formation.…”