Institude of Integrated Mircosystems Funded Project

Project Title:

Development of a hybrid nano-polymer composite membrane for micro-polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

Principal Investigator:

Prof Ping GAO, Department of Chemical Engineering, HKUST

Project Duration:

Jul 1, 2002 to Jun 30, 2004

Project Summary:

This project is to develop a new polymer electrolyte membrane structure for low temperature proton transfer using both hydrogen and methanol as the fuels. This membranes include an UHMWPE matrix embedded with proton transfer organo-nano platelet silicate. A series of nanocomposite membranes, including Nafion/clay, Nafion/TiO2NT, Nafion/clay/CNT, Nafion/CNT(SZ)AT/Pt, Nafion/CNT(SZ)AT/Pt/Clay, Nafion/CNT(SZ)AT/Pt/TiO2NT, have been developed and characterized. The nanocomposite membranes show significant improvement over the commercial membranes when assembled to an MEA (Membrane Assembly) using the same electrode. The MEA performance of the Nafion/Pt on CNT/TiO2NT is the best among all the nanocomposite materials. In addition, the multi-walled carbon nanotube supported electrodes were also prepared and tested. A six-stack prototype fuel cell has been constructured and being tested.

Research Output:

  1. Publication
    2.

    • CL. Chui, P. Gao and T.X Yu, A novel self-humidifying Nafion nanocomposite membrane with enhanced high temperature performance and gas permeability resistance. In preparation for submission to Journal of Membrane Science.

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