IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v16y2023i5p2256-d1081345.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of Salty Environments on the Degradation Behavior and Mechanical Properties of Nafion Membranes

Author

Listed:
  • Dharmjeet Madhav

    (KU Leuven—Bruges, Department of Materials Engineering, Surface and Interface Engineered Materials, 8200 Bruges, Belgium)

  • Changyuan Shao

    (KU Leuven—Bruges, Department of Materials Engineering, Surface and Interface Engineered Materials, 8200 Bruges, Belgium)

  • Jorben Mus

    (KU Leuven—Bruges, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mechanics and Energy Conversion, 8200 Bruges, Belgium)

  • Frank Buysschaert

    (KU Leuven—Bruges, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mechanics and Energy Conversion, 8200 Bruges, Belgium)

  • Veerle Vandeginste

    (KU Leuven—Bruges, Department of Materials Engineering, Surface and Interface Engineered Materials, 8200 Bruges, Belgium)

Abstract

The application of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) in maritime transportation is currently in the spotlight due to stringent emissions regulations and the establishment of a carbon trading system. However, salt in the marine environment can accelerate the degradation of proton-exchange membranes (PEM), which are the core component of PEMFCs. In this study, the effect of the NaCl concentration and temperature on the degradation of Nafion, the benchmark PEMFC membrane, was analyzed ex situ by accelerated degradation using Fenton’s test. The membrane properties were studied by mass change, fluoride ion emission, FTIR spectroscopy, and tensile test. The results showed that the degradation of Nafion membranes increased with the increase in temperature and NaCl concentration. Further studies revealed that Nafion produces C=O bonds during the degradation process. Additionally, it was found that sodium ions replace hydrogen ions in degraded Nafion fragments based on analysis of the weight change, and the rate of substitution increases with increasing temperature. A better understanding of the degradation behavior of Nafion in salty environments will lead to the advanced manufacturing of PEM for applications of PEMFCs in maritime transportation.

Suggested Citation

  • Dharmjeet Madhav & Changyuan Shao & Jorben Mus & Frank Buysschaert & Veerle Vandeginste, 2023. "The Effect of Salty Environments on the Degradation Behavior and Mechanical Properties of Nafion Membranes," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-13, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:5:p:2256-:d:1081345
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/5/2256/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/5/2256/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhu, Jingyu & Tan, Jinzhu & Pan, Qing & Liu, Zenghui & Hou, Qiong, 2019. "Effects of Mg2+ contamination on the performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cell," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Dharmjeet Madhav & Junru Wang & Rajesh Keloth & Jorben Mus & Frank Buysschaert & Veerle Vandeginste, 2024. "A Review of Proton Exchange Membrane Degradation Pathways, Mechanisms, and Mitigation Strategies in a Fuel Cell," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-27, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Latif, Hamid & Wasif, Danish & Rasheed, Saba & Sattar, Abdul & Rafique, M. Shahid & Anwar, Abdul Waheed & Zaheer, S. & Shabbir, Syeda Ammara & Imtiaz, Ayesha & Qutab, Mehwish & Usman, Arslan, 2020. "Gold nanoparticles mixed multiwall carbon nanotubes, supported on graphene nano-ribbons (Au-NT-G) as an efficient reduction electrode for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cells (PEMFC)," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 767-773.
    2. Liu, Jiaran & Tan, Jinzhu & Yang, Weizhan & Li, Yang & Wang, Chao, 2021. "Better electrochemical performance of PEMFC under a novel pneumatic clamping mechanism," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    3. Prapainainar, Paweena & Du, Zehui & Theampetch, Apichaya & Prapainainar, Chaiwat & Kongkachuichay, Paisan & Holmes, Stuart M., 2020. "Properties and DMFC performance of nafion/mordenite composite membrane fabricated by solution-casting method with different solvent ratio," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    4. Francesco Piraino & Petronilla Fragiacomo, 2020. "Design of an Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy-Based Control in Relation to the Passenger Number for a Fuel Cell Tram Propulsion," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-16, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:5:p:2256-:d:1081345. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.