Effect of morphological properties of ionic liquid-templated mesoporous anatase TiO2 on performance of PEMFC with Nafion/TiO2 composite membrane at elevated temperature and low relative humidity

Three high-purity TiO2 (anatase) powders (TPF6, TBF4, and Tconventional) were prepared by the sol–gel method with/without ionic liquid as template and calcinations at 450 °C. These powders were, then, characterized to investigate their differences in morphological properties. Electrochemical performances of the H2/O2 PEMFCs employing the Nafion composite membranes with these three TiO2 powders as fillers were studied over 80–120 °C under 50% and 95% relative humidity (RH). The result showed that the order of the fillers effect on the performance at 80 and 90 °C was the same as that of the TiO2 filler's specific surface area (i.e. TPF6 > Tconventional > TBF4 > P25, a commercially available nonporous TiO2 powder). However, the order between Tconventional and TBF4 was reversed at 110 and 120 °C under 50% RH. This indicates that the size and the amount of mesopores, which better confined the water molecules, were significant contributing factors to the performances at the higher temperatures. The best power density obtained under 50% RH at 120 °C and a voltage of 0.4 V was from the PEMFC with the TPF6-containing Nafion composite membrane. It was about 5.7 times higher than the value obtained from that with the recast Nafion membrane.