A necessity to develop a well forming anion exchange membrane (AEM) is evidenced by the recent increased in the number of publications on AEM for fuel cells applications. The higher cathode reaction kinetics at AEM fuel cell opens the possibility of using inexpensive metal catalysts. Poly(phenylene oxide) poly(venyl benzyl trimethly ammonium) hydroxide membrane with titrated IEC of 3.2 meq/gm of dry membrane was studied as an AEM for fuel cell applications. Environmentally controlled electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements were performed as function of temperature and humidity (%RH) under N2 environment. The membrane ionic conductivities of 0.137 ± 0.015 and 0.024 ± 0.006 S/cm at 95%RH and 40%RH; respectively were observed at 60 ºC in CO2 free alkaline form. This is the first AEM reported to have a measureable conductivity at as dry as 40%RH. But ionic conductivity suffered tremendously when the AEM was exposed to ambient air. Properties of air controlled vs air exposed AEM will be discussed along with the difference in liquid and vapor water uptake behavior of these membranes under similar conditions of temperature and %RH. A complete set of electrochemical and morphological study of the membrane will be discussed in the presentation. The authors would like to thank the US Army Research Office for the funding under the MURI #W911NF-10-1-0520 and the ARO DURIP #W911NF-11-1-0462

Highly conductive alkaline poly(phenylene oxide) poly(vinyl benzyl trimethyl ammonium) diblock membrane for anion exchange membrane fuel cell applications

249th National Meeting (2015)

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