Fluorinated poly(p-triphenyl piperidine) anion exchange membranes with robust dimensional stability for fuel cells

Ze Yu; Wei Ting Gao; Ying Jie Liu; Qiu Gen Zhang; Ai Mei Zhu; Qing Lin Liu

doi:10.1016/j.jcis.2023.08.011

Fluorinated poly(p-triphenyl piperidine) anion exchange membranes with robust dimensional stability for fuel cells

J Colloid Interface Sci. 2023 Dec:651:404-414. doi: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.08.011. Epub 2023 Aug 3.

Authors

Ze Yu¹, Wei Ting Gao¹, Ying Jie Liu¹, Qiu Gen Zhang¹, Ai Mei Zhu¹, Qing Lin Liu²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, The College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, PR China.
² Department of Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, The College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, PR China. Electronic address: qlliu@xmu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37549525
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcis.2023.08.011

Abstract

Anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs), which are more economical than proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), stand out in the context of the rapid development of renewable energy. Superacid-catalyzed ether-free aromatic polymers have recently received a lot of attention due to their exceptional performance, but their development has been hampered by the trade-off between the dimensional stability and ionic conductivity of anion exchange membranes (AEMs). Here, we introduced fluoroketones containing different numbers of fluorinated groups (x = 0, 3 and 6) in the main chain of p-terphenyl piperidine because of the favorable hydrophobic properties of fluorinated groups. The results show that fluorinated AEMs can enhance OH^- conductivity by building more aggregated hydrophilic channels while ensuring dimensional stability. The PTF6-QAPTP AEM with more fluorinated groups has the most excellent performance at 80 °C with an OH^- conductivity of 142.7 mS cm^-1 and a swelling ratio (SR) of only 4.55 %. Additionally, it exhibits good alkali durability, with the OH^- conductivity and quaternary ammonium (QA) cation retaining at 93.45% and 92.6%, respectively, after immersion in a 2 M NaOH solution at 80 °C for 1200 h. In addition, the power density of the PTF6-QAPTP based single cell reaches 849 mW cm^-2 when the current density is 1600 mA cm^-2. The PTF6-QAPTP based cell has a voltage retention of 88% after 80 h of stability testing at a constant current density of 300 mA cm^-2 at 80 °C.

Keywords: Anion exchange membranes; Dimensional stability; Fluorinated groups; Hydrophilic channels; Trade-off effect.