New process for high temperature polybenzimidazole membrane production and its impact on the membrane and the membrane electrode assembly

Water addition is a key step in the new process developed at BASF Fuel Cell Inc. (BFC) for polybenzimidazole (PBI) membrane production. The added water prevents further polymerization and controls the solution viscosity for easier membrane casting. For large-scale PBI membrane production, a certain amount of tension is necessary during membrane upwinding. The applied tension could affect the polymer orientation and result in anisotropic membrane mechanical properties and proton conductivity. The membrane prepared with tension shows higher elastic modulus and proton conductivity in machine direction, which might suggest some degree of polymer chain orientation. However, the membrane electrode assembly (MEA) performance is not affected by the membrane's apparent anisotropic character. However, we observed performance variation as a function of MEA break-in condition, which might be explained by the formation of a phosphate anion concentration gradient during MEA operation.