Obtaining energy from fuel cells is an important issue nowadays to conserve the environment and membranes play the role of electrolyte in fuel cells and are solid electrolytes in proton exchanging fuel cells, which allow the pass of ions.
According to Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (INIC), Iranian researchers from New Energies Research Center of Amirkabir University of Technology produced nanomembranes that can be used in the production of high temperature fuel cells.
The membrane has been made of a cheap nanocomposite through a simple method. The production and evaluation of the nanomembrane have been carried out at laboratorial scale.
Nefion is one of the most common polymeric membranes used in fuel cells. Despite its numerous advantages, Nefion membrane has a weak performance at temperatures higher than 80°C. Therefore, it cannot be used in polymeric fuel cells that work at temperatures higher than 100°C. In addition, Nefion is very expensive to obtain. The nanocomposite membrane produced in this research has appropriate thermal stability and performance at high temperatures, and its production cost is much cheaper. Therefore, it can be considered as a promising option in the production of membranes.
A simple and cost-effective solution casting method was used to produce the membrane, without the need for complicated processes. The cost to produce polymeric membranes to be used in fuel cells can be reduced in this method so their application has an economic justification. In case of being mass produced, the nanocomposite membrane presented in this research can help the development of fuel cells as an option for reducing pollution.
Results of the research have been published in Journal of Power Sources, vol. 276, 2015, pp. 62-72.