1 research outputs found
Water Transport Properties of Plasma-Modified Commercial Anion-Exchange Membrane for Solid Alkaline Fuel Cells
In the field of low-temperature fuel cells, solid alkaline
membrane
fuel cells (SAMFCs) appear to be a very promising new fuel cell technology.
Nevertheless, commercial hydroxyl-exchange membranes suitable for
SAMFCs suffer from some limitations, especially low retention to water
at the cathode (where water is required to be reactive in the electrochemical
reaction), which weakens fuel cell performances. In this study, the
commercial Morgan ADP membrane by Solvay has been modified on the
surface by plasma processes using argon or argon/triallylamine as
gaseous phases. Plasma-treated and untreated membranes have been characterized
in terms of water sorption and diffusion properties performing water
vapor sorption measurements. Analysis of sorption isotherms and related
modeling from Park model has shown that plasma treatments induce a
decrease in water sorption and diffusion abilities without qualitatively
affecting the water transport properties. Plasma modification from
triallylamine leading to the deposition of a highly cross-linked film
on the membrane surface is more influent than argon plasma treatment,
causing surface physical cross-linking coupled to hydrophilization
effect