High Temperature Studies of Graphene Nanoplatelets-MOFs Membranes for PEM Fuel Cells Applications

The wide applicability of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) is hindered by their dependency on the Nafion membrane as a state-of-the-art electrolyte. Nafion membranes can only operate at relatively low temperatures, up to 80°C. Therefore, any application of the fuel cell above this temperature would cause the PEMFC to lose its proton conductivity and mechanical integrity. For this reason, the development of Nafion-free membranes for PEMFCs has been studied extensively through the corporation of several additives over polymer substrates. The charge transfer abilities of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), among other properties, make them one of the possible additives. The objective of this work is to synthesize Nafion-free membranes based on graphene oxide, MOFs, ionic liquids, polyethylene glycol, and zirconium phosphate over PTTFE membrane as an alternative to Nafion membranes. The preliminary results gave proton conductivities in the range of 10-4 S/cm up to 150°C with graphene oxide MOF addition to all samples.