Hydroxide (OH-) exchange membrane fuel cells (HEMFCs) have been shown to have the potential to become truly affordable and viable power sources because of their ability to work with non-precious metal catalysts and inexpensive hydrocarbon membranes. The properties of hydroxide exchange membranes (HEMs) such as conductivity, solubility, and affinity with the electrocatalysts directly and significantly impact the fuel cell performance, and they are fundamentally controlled by the hydroxide-conducting functional group. The nature of the conventional quaternary ammonium hydroxide (QAOH) functional group tends to make their HEMs suffer from low conductivity and poor solubility, limiting the performance of HEMFCs. In this presentation, we will discuss structure and properties of the unique tris(2,4,6-trimethoxyphenyl)-constructed quaternary phosphonium hydroxide (QPOH) functional group that offers hope to solve the challenging problems of QAOH-based HEMs.

Quaternary phosphonium-based polymer electrolytes for high-performance hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cells

244th National Meeting (2012)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.