Polymer Nanocomposites - Fuel Cell Applications

Abstract

“In today’s world, solving environmental problems is an investment and not an expense”. It is our task in our time and in our generation to hand down undiminished to those who come after us, as was handed down to us by those who went before, the natural wealth and beauty which is ours. Throughout the world, environmental protection via green power technology is imperative. It has prompted intensive research activities in various aspects of fuel cells (Sopian & Daud, 2006). Fuel cell is an electrochemical device which directly converts chemical energy into an electrical energy by utilizing various fuels such as hydrogen, methanol, ethanol, methylene blue, glucose, natural gas, etc., in a reaction with an oxidant (oxygen) (Haynes, 2001). Many investigations have been explored on the various components of polymer electrolyte membrane (PEMFC) and direct methaol fuel cells (DMFC) such as gas diffusion layer (GDL), membrane electrode assembly (MEA), bipolar plates, stack, catalysts, and electrolyte membranes (Bazylak, 2006; Ahmed & Sung, 2008). Among the various components of fuel cells, the research and developmental activities are focusing their keen interest towards the development of polymer electrolyte membranes. Electrolyte membranes act as a separator between the electrodes and determine the over all performance of fuel cells. In other words, electrolyte membranes are considered as the basic backbone or heart of the polymer membrane electrolyte fuel cells. High tempearture and lower humdity operation of fuel cell is essential for the higher energy perfomance and it circumvents the reformer which decreases the cost of the entire fuel cell device. In general, acidified polymers have been used as a polymer electrolyte membrane for the applications of fuel cells. The higher extent of acidification leads to a physical infertility and deteroites the fuel cell performance and durability. So an improvement has to be made on the polymer membrane for the betterment of extended fuel cell performance associated with the durability. Though many efforts have been addressed to gear this issue, synthesis of new proton conducting polymers and modifying the existing polymers with nanometric inorganic filler techniques are very attractive. The difficult molecular and structural parameters of the new polymer synthesis hinder its large scale applications. Whereas easier and controllable synthesis routes