Anion Conducting Polymers for Fuel Cell and Electrolyzer

The hydrogen, as energy vector, is considering one promising green, sustainable, low-cost alternative to hydrocarbon fuels. In the circular hydrogen economy, the fuel cell technologies play a crucial role of the energy conversion and, in particular, Anion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell are retained to be very promising for the high-power delivery, the short waiting time before providing energy, the low working temperature. My PhD is focus on synthesis and characterization of anionic conducting polymer for fuel cell and electrolyzer applications. The first part of activities is focused on the study of new chemical modifications of polyfluorinated (Aquivion®), aliphatic polyketones, polystyrene polymer matrix to address the main drawbacks of the chemical and electrochemical stability and also the high cost. The synthesis methods involve the organic chemistry procedure for examples Pall-Knorr reaction, Baeyer-Villiger oxidation, methylation process. The physical-chemical characterization part is aimed to the better understand the properties of the functionalized polymer matrix. The polymer structure is investigated by spectroscopes technique for example FTIR and solid-state NMR while, the thermal properties and their stability are determined by TGA and DSC measurements. For the promising work of Aquivion® modification, I also performed accelerated ageing treatment for testing the chemical and electrochemical stability and I used them in for water Electrolyzer application. The functionalized polymers show interesting and promising properties for fuel cell and electrolyzer applications and, in particular, modified Aquivion® membranes show excellent stability in alkaline environmental and archive 130 mA cm-2 at 80°C. The results of Aquivion® modification are published on two international journals and the polyketones functionalization work is undergoing publication.