Correlated interfacial water transport and proton conductivity in perfluorosulfonic acid membranes.

ABSTRACT: Water must be effectively transported and is also essential for maximizing proton conductivity within fuel-cell proton-exchange membranes (PEMs). Therefore, identifying relationships between PEM properties, water transport, and proton conductivity is essential for designing optimal PEMs. Here, we use coherent Raman spectroscopy to quantify real-time, in situ diffusivities of water subspecies, bulk-like and nonbulk-like (interfacial) water, in five different perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) PEMs. Although the PEMs were chemically diverse, water transport within them followed the same rule: Total water diffusivity could be represented by a linear combination of the bulk-like and interfacial water diffusivities. Moreover, the diffusivity of interfacial water was consistently larger than that of

SUBMITTER: Ling X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6500179 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature