Perfluorinated Sulfonic Acid Proton Exchange Membranes

The perfluorinated proton exchange membrane is a commercially available perfluorosulphonate cation exchange membranes commonly used as a perm-selective separator in chlor-alkali electrolysis and as the electrolyte in solid polymer fuel cells. This usage arises because of its high mechanical, thermal and chemical stability coupled with its high conductivity and ionic selectivity.In this paper, the performance of perfluorinated proton exchange membranes made by three methods was studied. The studies on those methods are followed.1. The research on the performance of perfluorinated proton exchange membrane made by flow castingIn this section, the mechanical strength and electrochemical performance of perfluorinated proton exchange membrane made by flow casting were studied. Compared with Nafion membrane, those performances of the flow casting membrane were similar. They are different in the surface conformations.2. The research on the performance of recasted perfluorinated proton exchange membraneThe performance of the recasted perfluorinated proton exchange membrane was investigated by comparison with Nafion. The results indicated that the recasted membrane was similar to Nafion in the mechanical properties and electrochemical performance.3. The research on the performance of composite membraneIn this section, composite membranes were obtained by impregnatingNafion resin into porous PTFE substrate membrane. The mechanical properties and electrochemical performance of composite membrane were similar to those of Nafion. The ion exchange capacity (IEC) and water content of composite membrane were also measured and compared with Nafion membrane.