Influence of variously functionalized SBA-15 fillers on conductivity and electrochemical properties of PBI composite membranes for high temperature polymer fuel cells

The use of inorganic fillers is an interesting strategy to improve the electrochemical performances of PBI membranes for application as electrolytes in HT-PEMFCs. Here, we prepared several mesoporous silica (SBA-15) based hybrids, functionalised with different moieties, namely acidic (SO3H-), basic (NH2-), and amphoteric (SO3H-NH2) units. The electrochemical properties of the resulting electrolytes were investigated in terms of proton transport and functional tests by varying the silica functionalization degree in the range 10-70 mol%, as well as the particles loading in the polymer (0-30 wt%). The actual effectiveness of the SBA-15 functionalization process in improving the electrolyte properties was compared with both the unfilled membrane and the one filled with pristine SBA-15. The best conductivity (∼90 mS cm−1 at 120 °C, 30%RH) was obtained with PBI composites loaded with 30 wt% of non-functionalized SBA-15. The use of fillers functionalized with acidic, basic of amphoteric groups did not lead to improvements with respect to pure SBA-15. This could be related to the set up of significant interactions between the functionalised fillers and H3PO4, which negatively influence the proton mobility. Encouraging MEA results (power peak >320 mW cm−2) were obtained in case of membranes based on pure SBA-15. These performances make the SBA-15/PBI composites particularly interesting for application in HT-PEMFCs.