Graduate Student Oral Session (ACS) (English)
[OA-4]
우수논문발표상 응모자Influence of Fluorocarbon-hydrocarbon Hybrid Surfactants on Properties of Nafion/ePTFE-reinforced Composite Membrane for PEMFCs application
발표자한동헌 (한국기술교육대학교)
연구책임자배진우 (한국기술교육대학교)
Abstract
Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) with reinforced composite membranes (RCMs) exhibit enhanced dimensional stability under humidity cycling compared to pristine membranes. However, poor interfacial compatibility between hydrophilic Nafion matrix and hydrophobic expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE) reinforcement limits complete impregnation, reducing proton conductivity and increasing hydrogen crossover. We employ eco-friendly fluorocarbon-hydrocarbon hybrid (CF-CH) surfactants in Nafion solution to improve interfacial compatibility. The surfactant-treated RCM (s-RCM) optimized with 1.0 mM CF-CH surfactant enhances proton conductivity to 175 mS/cm, 2.4 times higher than non-treated RCM (n-RCM). s-RCM achieves peak power density of 740 mW cm-2. Under wet/dry cycling, s-RCM maintains stable operation for 192 hours, representing 33% longer than n-RCM. This approach offers method for high-performance RCMs in next-generation PEMFCs.