Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) reinforced poly(ethersulphone)–poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) composite membrane for high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells

• The PES–PVP/PTFE composite membrane was prepared by a facile procedure.
• The composite membrane increases mechanical strength.
• SEM results indicate that the pores of PTFE membrane are well filled.
• The fuel cell with the resulting composite membrane showed good performance.

A high temperature proton-exchange membrane (PEM), polytetrafluoroethylene–poly(ethersulphone)–poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PES–PVP/PTFE) composite membranes, was prepared by impregnating PES–PVP solutions into the porous PTFE films to reinforce the mechanical properties thereof. After doping with phosphoric acid (PA), the tensile strength and Young׳s modulus of PES–PVP/PTFE composite membranes were much higher than those of the PA doped PES–PVP membrane. PA doping level of the composite membrane was positively related to the impregnating degree of PES–PVP into PTFE. In this study, the PES–PVP/PTFE composite membranes with the optimized impregnating degree exhibited a proton conductivity of 0.26 S cm−1 at 180 °C with 560 wt% H3PO4 doped. The high-temperature PEMFCs with PES–PVP/PTFE-5 composite membrane demonstrated a maximum power density of 607 mW cm−2 at 180 °C with H2/O2 system. Furthermore, the PES–PVP/PTFE composite membranes show a low H2 crossover current density in high-temperature PEMFCs.

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