Fuel cell (FC) has been becoming one of the most competitive powers in the field of internal combustion engine, owing to its high energy conversion efficiency and low pollutant. As the key component in FCs, the proton exchange membrane (PEM) separates fuel from oxidant and simultaneously conducts protons. However, PEMs suffers from a significant deterioration in proton conductivity under high-temperature and/or low-humidity conditions due to dehydration or water loss of PEMs, which limits the application of FC.

Professor Peiyi Wu and associate professor Beibei Tang prepared inorganic nanoparticles with various structures and applied them in the modification of Nafion PEMs. Therefore, a series of hybrid PEMs with high proton conductivity and low methanol permeability were obtained. The proton conductivity of hybrid PEMs is 2-10 times higher than the pristine polymer PEMs and the selectivity (the ratio of proton conductivity to methanol permeability) is one-two orders of magnitude higher than that of the recast Nafion membrane.

The paper first-authored by Mr. Feng, a PhD student supervised by Professor Wu was published in J. Mater. Chem. A. See details: Kai Feng, Beibei Tang* and Peiyi Wu*, A “H2O donating/methanol accepting” platform for preparation of highly selective Nafion-based proton exchange membranes, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2015, 3, 18546-18556. Links: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2015/ta/c5ta04916d.

Kai Feng, Beibei Tang* and Peiyi Wu*, Ammonia-assisted Dehydrofluorination between PVDF and Nafion for Highly Selective and Low-cost Proton Exchange Membranes: A Possible Way to Further Strengthen the Commercialization of Nafion, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2015, 3, 12609-12615.Links:

http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2015/ta/c5ta02855h

The paper first-authored by Mr. Jia, a PhD student supervised by Professor Wu was published in J. Mater. Chem. A. See details: Wei Jia, Kai Feng, Beibei Tang* and Peiyi Wu*, β-Cyclodextrin modified silica nanoparticles for Nafion based proton exchange membranes with significantly enhanced transport properties, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2015, 3, 15607-15615. Links: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2015/ta/c5ta03381k

The paper first-authored by Ms. Yang, a Master student supervised by Professor Wu was published in J. Mater. Chem. A. See details: Lijia Yang, Beibei Tang* and Peiyi Wu*, Metal–organic framework–graphene oxide composites: a facile method to highly improve the proton conductivity of PEMs operated under low humidity, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2015, 3, 15838-15842. Links: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2015/ta/c5ta03507d

（A）and（B）Schematic illustration of the proposed “H2O donating/methanol accepting” mechanism, (C) Proton conductivity comparison between the hybrid PEMs in our work (red and blue) and various Nafion-based PEMs modified by references (black).