Cs2.5H0.5PWO40/SiO2 as addition self-humidifying composite membrane for proton exchange membrane fuel cells

In this paper, we first reported a novel self-humidifying composite membrane for the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). Cs2.5H0.5PWO40/SiO2 catalyst particles were dispersed uniformly into the Nafion® resin, and then Cs2.5H0.5PWO40–SiO2/Nafion composite membrane was prepared using solution-cast method. Compared with the H3PWO40 (PTA), the Cs2.5H0.5PWO40/SiO2 was steady due to the substitute of H+ with Cs+ and the interaction between the Cs2.5H0.5PWO40 and SiO2. And compared with the performance of the fuel cell with commercial Nafion® NRE-212 membrane, the cell performance with the self-humidifying composite membrane was obviously improved under both humidified and dry conditions at 60 and 80 °C. The best performance under dry condition was obtained at 60 °C. The self-humidifying composite membrane could minimize membrane conductivity loss under dry conditions due to the presence of catalyst and hydrophilic Cs2.5H0.5PWO40/SiO2 particles.