Issue |
E3S Web Conf.
Volume 334, 2022
EFC21 - European Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Piero Lunghi Conference
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 04018 | |
Number of page(s) | 5 | |
Section | Fuel Cell Technologies | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202233404018 | |
Published online | 10 January 2022 |
An efficient composite membrane to improve the performance of PEM reversible fuel cells
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy
* Corresponding author: gabriele.gagliardi@uniroma1.it
The aim of this study is to develop composite Nafion/GO membranes, varying GO loading, to be used in a Unitized reversible fuel cell comparing its performance with the baseline Nafion. Water uptake, ion exchange capacity (IEC), tensile strength, and SEM (scanning electron microscope) analysis are discussed. The SEM analysis revealed how the GO is homogeneously disposed into the Nafion matrix. The addition of GO improves the membrane tensile strength while reducing the elongation ratio. Water uptake, IEC enhance with the increasing of GO content. Regarding fuel cell mode, the performance is analysed using a polarization curve on a MEA with an effective area of 9 cm2. The composite membrane demonstrated higher mechanical strength, enhanced water uptake so higher performance in fuel cell mode. Despite the power absorbed from the electrolysis is higher when using a composite membrane, the beneficial effect in FC mode resulted in a slightly higher round trip efficiency. The GO-Nafion membrane was not able to maintain its performance with increasing the operating time, so potentially leading to a lower lifetime than the Nafion bare.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2022
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.