Citionic membranes produced by swift heavy ions to be applied in pem fuel cells

Abstract

Membranes in PEM fuel cells may have some characteristics like high stability and durability under high temperature. mechanical tension and oxidative atmosphere. These requirements are expected by fluorinated polymers. The functionalization of these materials is achieved by radiation-induced grafting. In this preliminary study, PVDF films were irradiated by heavy fission fragments from 252-Cf source and Cl and S beams respectively at 70 and 110 MeV energies. These ion beams were provided by the heavy ion accelerator Tandar of Buenos Aires. Chemical etching was used to produce pores in diameter about few hundreds of nanometers. After this procedure, the pores were grafted with styrene in the remained active sites and finally these membranes were sulfonated. This procedure gives bulk grafting characteristics. These membranes were studied by FTIR, SEM and electrochemical analysis. After these characterizations, parameters were defined in order to proceed the test performance in polymer exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC).