meta-PBI/methylated PBI-OO blend membranes for acid doped HT PEMFC

• meta-PBI/methylated PBI-OO blend membranes were prepared and characterised.
• The mechanical properties depend on the blend composition.
• PA doped membranes show good proton conductivity.
• The fuel cell performance of a blend membrane was monitored for 288 h without failure.
• Peak power density of that membrane doped with 63 wt% PA was 413 mW/cm2 at 160 °C.

Methylation of polybenzimidazole leads to positively charged polymer backbones, and moveable anions. Ion exchange of methylated PBI-OO in phosphoric acid (PA) shows that the resulting polymers dissolve. meta-PBI, however, absorbs about 400 wt% PA while remaining a self supported membrane. We investigate the properties of blend membranes, employing meta-PBI for mechanical integrity and methylated PBI-OO for high PA uptake and resulting proton conductivity. While small additions of PBI-OO decrease the tensile strength of blend membranes (58 MPa for 10% PBI-OO), further addition leads to an increase, and 50% blend membranes show again a tensile strength of 74 MPa, just 3 MPa lower than pure meta-PBI membranes. Thermal stability of iodide exchanged blend membranes appears to be remarkably high, probably because cleaved iodomethane does not evaporate but methylates meta-PBI. PA concentration in doped membranes of 60–63% is reached by doping in 60% PA (blend; 6.3 PA/repeat unit) and 70% PA (meta-PBI; 4.6 PA/r.u.). This suggests that blends absorb PA more strongly. Both membranes show similar conductivity between rt and 140 °C, indicating that PA concentration describes these membranes better than PA/r.u. In the fuel cell, blend membranes show similar or better performance than meta-PBI. In the TGA, blends doped in 20% PA showed a stable plateau between 115 and 180 °C, while meta-PBI lost weight continuously.

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