Proton conductivity and performance in fuel cells of grafted membranes based on polymethylpentene with radiation-grafted crosslinked sulfonated polystyrene

Abstract In this work, a comparative study was carried out of the transport properties and performance in a hydrogen-air fuel cell of the membranes based on polymethylpentene (PMP) with grafted sulfonated polystyrene and the standard Nafion® 212 membrane. Grafted cation-exchange membranes (GCM) were obtained by radiation graft post-polymerization of styrene onto UV-exposed PMP film followed by sulfonation with chlorosulfonic acid. The proton-conductivity of the GCM membrane with an ion-exchange capacity of 2.9 ± 0.1 meq/g reaches 21 ± 1 mS cm−1 at room temperature and 95% relative humidity, which is twice higher the conductivity of the Nafion® under the same conditions. The GCM-1 H2-permeability of 2.06∙10−7 cm2 s−1 even slightly lower than that of the Nafion® 212 (2.14∙10−7 cm2 s−1). A comparison of these membranes in the membrane electrode assemblies (MEA) of hydrogen-air fuel cells (FC) shows that the use of the grafted membranes with the high ion-exchange capacity is highly promising. The maximum performance of FC with grafted and Nafion® 212 membrane are both close to 180 mW/cm2 at the current density of 400 mA/cm2. At the same time, the high degree of crosslinking of sulfonated polystyrene leads to a decrease in conductivity and does not give an advantage in gas permeability.