Highly proton conductive electrolyte membranes: Fiber-induced long-range ionic channels
By Yao, Yingfang; Guo, Bingkun; Ji, Liwen; Jung, Kyung-Hye; Lin, Zhan; Alcoutlabi, Mataz; Hamouda, Hechmi & Zhang, Xiangwu
Published in Electrochemistry Communications
2011
Abstract
Novel conductive inorganic fiber/polymer hybrid proton exchange membranes (PEMs) were obtained by taking advantage of sulfated zirconia (S-ZrO2) fibers made by electrospinning and post-electrospinning processes. Induced by electrospun inorganic fibers, long-range ionic channels were formed by agglomerating functional groups, which served as continuous hopping pathways for protons and significantly improved the proton conductivity of PEMs.