Poly(2,5-benzimidazole)/trisilanolphenyl POSS composite membranes for intermediate temperature PEM fuel cells

Abstract

Novel organic-inorganic composites were in-situ synthesized by using TriSilanolPhenyl polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (SO-POSS) as fillers and poly(2,5-benzimidazole) (ABPBI) as polymer matrix. The uniformly dispersed 3% SO-POSS particles in ABPBI matrix increased the thermal stability of the composite membranes. It was found that both the water and H₃PO₄ uptakes were increased significantly with the addition of SO-POSS due to the formation of hydrogen bonds between the POSS and H₂O/H₃PO₄, which played a critical role in the improvement of the conductivity of the composite membranes at temperature over 100 °C. Proton conductivities of H₃PO₄ doped with 3wt% SO-POSS contained ABPBI membranes increased with the increase of H₃PO₄ absorbance, reaching the maximum proton conductivity of 2.55 × 10^-3 S·cm^-1 at 160 °C, indicating that the ABPBI/SO-POSS composite membrane could be a promising candidate for mid-temperature PEMFCs.

Keywords

poly(2,5-benzimidazole) / triSilanolPhenyl POSS / phosphoric acid / IT-PEMFCs

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