Composite electrolyte with crosslinking agents
AssigneeHoku Scientific, Inc.
InventorsMatthew Robert Kurano, Gangadhar Panambur, Arunachala Nadar Mada Kannan, Karl Milton Taft, III
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Abstract
A covalent crosslinking of ion-conducting materials via sulfonic acid groups can be applied to various low cost electrolyte membrane base materials for improved fuel cell performance metrics relative to such base material. This proposed approach is due, in part, to the observation that many aromatic and aliphatic polymer materials have significant potential as proton exchange membranes if a modification can increase their physical and chemical stabilities without sacrificing electrochemical performance or significantly increasing the material and production costs.
Claims25
A method for improving the physical and mechanical properties of ion-conducting materials, comprising:
- providing an ion conducting base material;
- providing a crosslinking agent;
- and
- incorporating the crosslinking agent into the ion-conducting base material through hydroxyl and sulfonic acid condensation or through amine and sulfonic acid condensation.
A method for adding functionality to ion-conducting materials, comprising
- providing an ion conducting based material;
- providing a crosslinking agent;
- and
- incorporating the modified crosslinking agent into the ion-conducting base material through hydroxyl and sulfonic acid condensation or through amine and sulfonic acid condensation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.