Liquid half-cell measurements provide a convenient laboratory method for the determination of relevant parameters electro-catalysts applied in e.g. polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells. While these may be effective...

Reformate gas, a commonly employed fuel for polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), contains carbon monoxide, which poisons Pt-containing anodes in such devices. A novel, low-cost mesoporous Si3N4 selective gas separation material was tested as a hydrogen clean-up membrane to remove CO from simulated feed gas to single-cell PEMFC, employing Nafion as the polymer electrolyte membrane. ...

Vesicles were made from amphiphilic diblock copolymers and characterized by micromanipulation. The average molecular weight of the specific polymer studied, polyethyleneoxide-polyethylethylene (EO40-EE37), is several times greater than that of typical phospholipids in natural membranes. Both the membrane bending and area expansion moduli of electroformed polymersomes (polymer-based liposomes) f...

Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) composed of polymer or blend is a vital element in PEM fuel cell that allows proton transport and serves as barrier between oxygen. Understanding the microscopic phase behavior blends very crucial to design alternative cost-effective proton-conducting materials. In this study, mesoscale morphologies Nafion/poly(1-vinyl-1,2,4-triazole) (Nafion-PVTri) Nafion/pol...

The Cover Feature shows how nitrates, often considered as pollutant and waste species, can be efficiently converted to valuable ammonia in a polymer electrolyte membrane electrolysis cell. By using ruthenium-based catalyst controlling proton transport through the membrane, competing hydrogen evolution reaction was successfully suppressed, enabling high faradaic efficiency for production. More i...

We have utilized 2D material point method (MPM) to study the influence of nanoparticles on the diffusivity of penentrants in model polymer membranes comprised of impenetrable spherical nanoparticles dispersed in a matrix with uniform penetrant solubility and diffusivity. The polymer membrane near the surface of a nanoparticle exhibits enhanced penetrant diffusion relative to that of the bulk po...

Polymer vesicles, or polymersomes, are being widely explored as synthetic analogs of lipid vesicles based on their stability, robustness, barrier properties, chemical versatility and tunable physical characteristics. Typical methods used to prepare giant-sized (> 4 µm) vesicles, however, are both time and labor intensive, yielding low numbers of intact polymersomes. Here, we present for the fir...