Membrane-electrode assembly for fuel cells with improved chemical durability and proton conductivity and method of manufacturing the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11522208-B2
Application number	US-202016998638-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 20, 2020
Priority date	Oct 31, 2019
Publication date	Dec 6, 2022
Grant date	Dec 6, 2022

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a membrane-electrode assembly for fuel cells and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly to a membrane-electrode assembly to which an electrolyte membrane including a cerium oxide and phosphoric acid functionalized graphene oxide is applied, whereby chemical durability and proton conductivity of the membrane-electrode assembly are improved.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A membrane-electrode assembly for fuel cells, the membrane-electrode assembly comprising:
an electrolyte membrane; and
a pair of electrodes provided on opposite surfaces of the electrolyte membrane, wherein the electrolyte membrane comprises a cerium oxide and phosphoric acid functionalized graphene oxide; and
wherein the cerium oxide and phosphoric acid functionalized graphene oxide has a structure in which the cerium oxide is distributed on a surface of the graphene oxide and the phosphoric acid is bonded to an oxygen element included in a functional group of the graphene oxide; and
wherein the functional group comprises at least one of a carboxyl group, an epoxy group, or any combination thereof.

2. The membrane-electrode assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the electrolyte membrane comprises a perfluorinated sulfonic acid (PFSA) ionomer.

3. The membrane-electrode assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the electrolyte membrane comprises 0.01 wt % to 20.0 wt % of the functionalized graphene oxide.

4. The membrane-electrode assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the electrolyte membrane comprises:
a porous reinforcement layer impregnated with anion transfer material and the functionalized graphene oxide; and
an ion transfer layer provided on at least one surface of the reinforcement layer, the ion transfer layer comprising an ion transfer material and the functionalized graphene oxide; and
wherein the ion transfer material comprises a perfluorinated sulfonic acid (PFSA) ionomer.

5. The membrane-electrode assembly according to claim 4 , wherein the porous reinforcement layer comprises any one selected from a group consisting of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (e-PTFE), polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), a polyphenylene oxide (PPO), polybenzimidazole (PBI), polyimide (PI), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVdF), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and a combination thereof.

Assignees

• Hyundai Motor Co Ltd
• Kia Motors Corp
• Univ Nat Chonnam Ind Found

Inventors

• Park Inyu
• Hong Bo Ki
• Hong Jae Woon
• Kumar Aniket
• Song Sun Ju

Classifications

• H01M8/1088

  Chemical modification, e.g. sulfonation · CPC title

• H01M8/0239

  Organic resins; Organic polymers · CPC title

• H01M8/1051

  Non-ion-conducting additives, e.g. stabilisers, SiO2 or ZrO2 · CPC title

• H01M2008/1095

  Fuel cells with polymeric electrolytes · CPC title

• H01M8/1027

  having carbon, oxygen and other atoms, e.g. sulfonated polyethersulfones [S-PES] · CPC title