Amino-functionalized mesoporous silica based polyethersulfone-polyvinylpyrrolidone composite membrane for elevated temperature fuel cells

Inorganic-organic nanostructured hybrid membranes based on polyethersulfone (PES)-polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) were prepared with mesoporous silica materials. All the hybrid membranes showed the similar phosphoric acid (PA) uptake. However, the proton conductivity of the PA-PES-PVP membrane was significantly increased after the addition of the inorganic fillers, especially for the amino-functionalized hollow mesoporous silica (NH2-HMS). The cell performance test also confirmed the superiority of the PES-PVP membranes with the inorganic fillers. The highest peak power density at 180 oC reached up to 480 mW cm-2 for the NH2-HMS based composite membrane fuel cell, which is 92.7 % higher than that of the PA-PES-PVP membrane fuel cell at the identical condition. The outstanding performance of the inorganic-organic hybrid membranes might be due to the facilitated proton transportation in the ordered mesoporous channels, and the great water retention of the inorganic fillers.