Towards fuel cell membranes with improved lifetime: Aquivion® Perfluorosulfonic Acid membranes containing immobilized radical scavengers

•A novel silica-supported cerium-oxide-based radical scavenger is synthesized.•This material is loaded as a filler in Aquivion® Perfluorosulfonic Acid membranes.•The loaded membrane show higher stability than radical scavenger-free membrane.•The composite scavenger mitigates the polymer electrolyte degradation.

A facile synthesis, based on a wet impregnation technique and a thermal treatment, of a novel silica-supported cerium-oxide-based radical scavenger bearing sulfonic acid functionalities is presented. This material is loaded as a filler in ePTFE reinforced membranes (called R79-02S) prepared starting from Aquivion® Perfluoro-Sulfonic Acid (PFSA) dispersions. The aim is to mitigate the peroxy radicals attack to the polymeric membrane under fuel cell operating conditions. These membranes show much longer (7 times more) life-time in Accelerated Stress Tests (AST) and reduced fluoride release (about one half) in Fenton's tests than the radical scavenger-free membrane without any loss in electrochemical performance. Scavenger-free Aquivion® PFSA-based membrane durability is about 200 h in AST whereas the same membrane containing the newly developed radical scavenger exceeds 1400 h. These results confirm the stability of the modified membranes and the excellent activity of the composite scavenger in mitigating the polymer electrolyte degradation.