Fuel cells are electrochemical devices which convert chemical energy of a reacting fuel directly into electricity with high efficiency and no pollution. Proton Exchange/ Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cells are likely to be among one of the most promising energy sources for transportation, heating and power generation. Some of the key materials used in PEM fuel cells are catalysts, mem...

We develop a performance model for a polymer electrolyte membrane based regenerative hydrogen-bromine fuel cell (rHBFC). The model includes four voltage loss mechanisms: ohmic loss through the membrane, hydrogen electrode activation, bromine electrode activation, and bromine electrode mass transport. We explore a large parameter space by looking at the dependences of each of these losses as a f...

A series of fluorinated sulfonated poly (ether amide)s (SPAs) were synthesized for proton exchange membrane fuel cell applications. A polycondensation reaction of 4,4’-oxydianiline, 2-sulfoterephthalic acid monosodium salt, and tetrafluorophenylene dicarboxylic acids (terephthalic and isophthalic) or fluoroaliphatic dicarboxylic acids produced SPAs with sulfonation degrees of 80–90%. Controllin...

Environmental concerns about carbon emissions are motivating development of Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEM-FC) technology for automotive propulsion. Catalyst Coated Membranes (CCM), which are the electrochemical „heart‟ of PEM-FC, consist of a proton-conductive polymer membrane embedded between two porous, electron conductive electrodes. The catalyst in the cathode consists of Pt nanop...

Background: Due to multiple roles of albumin in the body, injection of its medicinal product as one of the therapeutic or management strategies under conditions such as severe bleeding, burns, liver failure, and neonatal hemolytic diseases is on the physicians' agenda. Considering that albumin is the most abundant plasma protein, designing an appropriate method to purify it is highly important....

Polymer-based ion exchange membranes (IEMs) are utilized for many applications such as in water desalination, energy storage, fuel cells and electrophoretic drug delivery devices, exemplified by the organic electronic pump (OEIP). The bulk of current research is primarily focused on finding highly conductive stable IEM materials. Even though great progress has been made, a lack fundamental unde...

An instrument for measuring the creep response of a material maintained under a controlled environment of temperature and vapor pressure is described. The temperature range of the instrument is 20-250 degrees C while the range of vapor pressure is 0-1 atm. Data are presented for tests conducted on this instrument with Nafion, a perfluorinated ionomer developed by DuPont and used as a membrane i...

The possibility of substituting Pt/C with the hydrogen storage alloy MlNi3.6Co0.85Al0.3Mn0.3 as the anode active material of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell system has been analyzed. The electrochemical properties indicate that a much more electrochemically active anode is obtained by impregnating the active material loaded anode in a Nafion proton conducting polymer. Such performance impr...

Polymer cages prepared by etching of gold nanoparticles from polymer templates by the "grafting around" method are designed for selective separation of metal nanoparticles. The separation process is demonstrated as a fast biphasic ligand exchange reaction. The high separation efficiency and size selectivity of the polymer cage is verified by comparison with the linear block copolymer.