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AssigneeCouncil of Scientific and Industrial Research
InventorsAshok Kumar Shukla, Sethuraman Pitchumani, Parthasarathi Sridhar, Akhila Kumar Sahu, Ganesh Selvarani, Prashant Subhash Khadke
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The present invention provides an alternate proton conducting polymer electrolyte membrane and a process for the preparation thereof. More particularly the present invention provides a conducting hybrid polymer electrolyte membrane comprising a stable host polymer and a proton-conducting medium as a guest polymer for its suitability in PEM-based fuel cells. The present invention deals with host polymer, comprising a group of poly (vinyl alcohol), poly (vinyl fluoride), polyethylene oxide, polyethyleneimine, polyethylene glycol, cellulose acetate, polyvinylmethylethyl ether, more preferably polyvinyl alcohol and a guest polymer comprising poly(styrene sulfonic acid), poly(acrylic acid), sulfonated phenolic, polyacrylonitrile, polymethyl acrylate, and quaternary ammonium salt, more preferably poly(styrene sulfonic acid).
A hybrid proton conducting polymer electrolyte membrane comprising a host polymer chemically cross-linked with a dialdehyde cross-linking agent and a proton conducting guest polymer, wherein the host polymer is poly (vinyl alcohol) and the guest polymer is poly(styrene sulfonic acid) and the said hybrid proton conducting polymer electrolyte membrane has the following characteristics:
A process for the preparation of proton conducting polymer electrolyte membrane which comprises preparing an aqueous solution of host polymer, adding gradually an aqueous solution of 20-30% cross-linking agent to the above said solution of host polymer, under stirring, for a period of 3-4 hr to obtain the chemically cross-linked host polymer with dialdehyde cross-linking agent, adding aqueous solution of the sodium salt of guest polymer to the above said solution of cross-linked host polymer, at a temperature of 25-30° C. and stirring it till a homogeneous slurry is obtained and casting the resultant admixture on a smooth flat substrate, followed by removing the solvent and curing it to obtain a hybrid membrane, dipping the resultant hybrid membrane in aqueous solution of about 1 M H2SO4, at a temperature of 25-30° C. a, for a period of 30-60 minutes, followed by washing with water to expel the residual H2SO4 to obtain the desired hybrid proton conducting polymer electrolyte membrane.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.