Gamma radiation grafted linear low density polyethylene based proton exchange membrane for fuel cell applications
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Bharath Govind
Abstract
As the technology of membrane-based fuel cells has advanced quickly, there has been a surge in demand for clean, sustainable energy applications worldwide. Raising the proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) power density is one of the most important infrastructure and device-level issues that must be resolved before widespread commercialization can occur, and aggressive targets have been put forth internationally. Polymeric membranes have attained significant attention within the realm of energy generation and conversion systems. This is attributed not only to their favorable economic considerations but also to the ease of synthesis, rendering them particularly compelling for the research community. However, the effective design of membrane materials is imperative to their successful integration into respective systems. Grafting of monomers onto prepolymers has been an excellent surface modification methodology to create desired functionalities for polymers. Hydrocarbon polymers are not so well studied in the literature, especially LLDPE. The lifespan and performance of proton exchange membrane fuel cells are determined by two opposite characteristics of proton-conductive membranes which are challenging to achieve simultaneously. Herein, we developed a novel solid polymer electrolyte membrane through the combination of vinyl heterocyclic monomers and polyethylene as backbone. Because of the right combination, hydrophilic monomers; 1-vinylimidazole and 4-vinylpyridine and hydrophobic backbone-LLDPE the resulting composite membrane [LLDPE-g-P(1VIm/4VP)] showed fair basic qualities, in terms of ion exchange capacity and water uptake calculations. All synthesized membranes showed dehydration after 90 °C signifying the optimal range of membranes for electrochemical applications.
Acknowledgments
Authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Vienna, Austria. We express our sincere gratitude to Dr. Ambuj Tripathi, Mr. Birendra Singh and Dr. Shaila Bahl of Inter-University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi, India Inter-University Accelerator Centre IUAC, New Delhi for offering support to use their facilities. Finally, authors are grateful to Dr. V. K. Jain and Dr. Abhishek Verma of Amity Institute of Renewable and Alternative Energy for providing SEM facility.
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Research ethics: Not applicable.
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Informed consent: Not applicable.
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Author contributions: Bharath Govind: Designing the research approach, experiments, or data collection. Sunita Rattan: Drafting and editing the manuscript. Amira Zaouak: Analyzing the data using statistical or qualitative methods.
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Use of Large Language Models, AI and Machine Learning Tools: None declared.
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Conflict of interest: The authors state no conflict of interest.
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Research funding: None declared.
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Data availability: All data shown in main text and supplementary information are available from the corresponding author upon request.
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