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Development of highly durable polymer electrolyte membranes most appropriating to residential fuel cell system.
- To overcome conflicting cell properties using radiation-grafting technique -
Sep. 19, 2008
The Japan Atomic Energy Agency (hereafter JAEA, President Toshio Okazaki) have developed the polymer electrolyte membranes possessing higher conductivity and mechanical strength at higher operating temperatures using radiation-induced grafting technique to achieve the power generation property and durability required for residential fuel cell system. This study has been conducted by Dr. Yasunari Maekawa, Dr. Masaharu Asano, and Dr. Jinhua Chen. According to advantages such as light weight and compact size of fuel cell devices, the research and development of a solid polymer type fuel cell, which utilizes a polymer thin film as electrolytes, has been intensively conducted for commercialization. However, conventional polymer electrolyte membranes are too weak under the operating conditions with low humidity at high temperatures to be applied for residential fuel cell systems and fuel cell vehicles.
We have successfully prepared the polymer electrolyte membranes possessing both high conductivity and durability at higher temperatures by applying newly developed thermal/radiation induced two step grafting technique into mechanically and thermally stable aromatic hydrocarbon polymers. The developed electrolyte membrane exhibited 1.5 times higher conductivity and 2.3 times higher mechanical strength, compared with conventional fluorinated electrolyte membranes. The single fuel cell device consisting of the developed electrolyte membrane maintained stable operation over 40000 hours under the operation at 80 ºC. These membranes can be applied to the fuel cell vehicles, which should contribute to current environmental problem, judging from no appreciable degradation of these membranes even under the operation condition of lower humidity.
Hereafter, we will continue the researches on improvement of conductivity and mechanical strength under much severe conditions as well as the development of mass production processes required for commercialization. Those results were presented in the 57th Symposium on Macromolecules on September 24-26, 2008 in Osaka.
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