Study on degradation process of polymer electrolyte by solution analysis

Degradation process of Nafion which is one of the polymer electrolyte generally used for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell was investigated by solution analysis and structural analysis of eluted species. Nafion degraded by gamma-ray irradiation and heat treatment was immersed in distilled water and the solutions were analyzed using ion chromatograph, total organic carbon (TOC) analyzer, and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES). The solutions after the Fenton reaction were also analyzed with the same methods. Proton, sulfide ion, fluorine ion and organic carbon were eliminated into the solution, and their ratio was changed depending on the degradation method. To determine the eliminated species to the solution, structural analysis of concentrated dissolved species was performed using FT-IR. As the results, the initial process of degradation was detected sensitively in solution analysis compared with membrane analysis, and difference of the degradation process under different conditions was clearly observed. It was also found that new functional group COOH was formed in the eliminated species. These results showed that solution analysis are very simple yet powerful methods to elucidate the degradation process, which can also be applied to actual fuel cell operation to track minute changes in the polymer electrolyte.