Durability of Nafion-hydrophilic silica hybrid membrane against trace radial species in polymer electrolyte fuel cells

► Decomposition test is applied by immersing Nafion in hydrogen peroxide at 80 °C for 0, 1, 4 and 8 h. ► Vibrational frequencies and IR intensities show Nafion/Aerosil 380 (1 wt.%) is better for chemical durability. ► Using DFT to study the mechanism of durability by calculating the optimization structure and energies. ► Si(OH)4 as a model of hydrophilic silica acts as radical scavenger for H·, ·OH and ·OOH. ► The entropy of Si(OH)4 to make a conjugation with H·, ·OH and ·OOH is 0.092, 0.134, 0.130 kJ·mol− 1·K− 1, respectively.