Dimensionally-stable phosphoric acid–doped polybenzimidazoles for high-temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Phosphoric acid–doped polybenzimidazole (PA-m-PBI) membranes are widely investigated for high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells because of their low cost and high performance. For this system, a major challenge is in achieving a good compromise between the phosphoric acid doping level and the membrane dimensional-mechanical stability. Different from the established PA-m-PBI system, the present work investigates two types of PA-PBI membranes incorporating flexible ether linkages and asymmetric bulky pendants (phenyl and methylphenyl), which exhibit much better dimensional-mechanical stability after immersing in PA solution, even at high temperature for an extended period. This superior stability allowed higher acid doping levels (20.6 and 24.6) to be achieved, thus increasing proton conductivity (165 and 217 mS cm−1 at 200 °C under anhydrous conditions) as well as significantly improving fuel cell performance. The peak power densities in hydrogen/air fuel cell were 279 and 320 mW cm−2 at 160 °C, without humidification. Molecular simulation, density and fractional free volume, and wide-angle X-ray diffraction were used to investigate their structure-property relationships.