Proton exchange membrane

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources.
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. (help, get involved!)
This article has been tagged since February 2007.


A proton exchange membrane (PEM) is a semipermeable membrane generally made from ionomers and designed to conduct protons while being impermeable to gasses such as oxygen or hydrogen. This is their essential function when incorporated into a proton exchange membrane fuel cell: separation of reactants and transport of protons. PEMs can be made from either pure polymer membranes or from composite membranes where other materials are embedded in a polymer matrix. One of the most common and commercially available PEM materials is Nafion which is made by DuPont. While nafion is an ionomer with a perfluorinated backbone like Teflon, there are many other structural motifs used to make ionomers for proton exchange membranes. Many use polyaromatic polymers while others use partially fluorinated polymers.

Proton exchange membranes are primarily characterized by proton conductivity (σ), methanol permeability (P), and thermal stability.


[edit] See also

 This chemistry article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../p/r/o/Proton_exchange_membrane.html"
In other languages