Research and development of novel proton exchange membranes for PEMFCs

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have attracted much attention due to their advantages of high power density, high efficiency and near zero emissions. Over the past several years, applications of this technology have been successfully demonstrated in a wide variety of fields including transportation power, hybrid heat/electricity supply for buildings and distributed generation. However, cost and reliability /durability still remain the hurdles to its commercialization and should be greatly improved to promote the practical application of this technology. To achieve this goal, high-performance key materials of PEMFCs, e.g. electro-catalysts, proton exchange membranes (PEMs), are critically needed. PEMFCs are generally operated with humidified fuel and oxidant at around 80 ◦C, which requires fuel and oxidant are firstly fed into the humidifying subsystem prior to entry into the cell. However, the external humidifying equipment makes the system more complex and increases its weight, volume and cost, which burdens fuel cell stack design. Obviously, the promoted operation of PEMFCs without external humidifying subsystem seems more attractive and valuable. Here, the research progress in our group of the membranes including reinforced membranes and self-humidifying membranes will be presented.