Polymerized Ionic Liquid Multiblock Polymers as Anion Exchange Membranes for Alkaline Fuel Cells

低成本、节能、零排放汽车的广泛商业化将对社会产生重大影响。越来越多地使用电池供电的电动汽车减少了烟雾和汽油消耗，但由于电池充电时间长，这些汽车仍然不适合长途旅行。燃料电池汽车还具有零排放和减少燃料消耗的特点，但需要重新加满油箱，而不是缓慢充电。用燃料电池代替笨重的电池可以减少车辆的重量和燃料消耗，同时释放货物空间。然而，商业上可用的燃料电池设计成本过高，部分原因是从燃料中提取电子所必需的高成本铂催化剂。消除铂将大大降低成本，并且可以采用固态阴离子交换膜（AEM）燃料电池设计。为了实现商业化，必须提高AEM的化学和机械稳定性、性能和可加工性。为了实现这些目标，该项目将开发一个新的聚合物分子设计平台，该平台赋予多个片段或“块”，赋予不同的功能，从而实现AEM燃料电池的优化。使用来自聚合离子液体的三嵌段三元聚合物可以同时集成功能，从而增加稳定性，离子电导率和可加工性。利用这一新的化学平台，将借助预测建模对膜合成进行优化。得到的膜将被充分表征，然后被纳入燃料电池中进行测试。燃料电池的性能将与膜形态相关联，为优化分子设计提供反馈回路。该项目将培养一名研究生和多名代表性不足的本科生。将建造一个新的便携式燃料电池示范模块，用于教育K-12学生。

Widespread commercialization of low cost, energy efficient, zero-emission automobiles will have a significant impact on society. Increased use of battery powered electric vehicles has reduced smog and decreased gasoline consumption, yet these vehicles remain ill-suited for long distance travel due to lengthy battery recharging times. Fuel cell vehicles also have zero-emissions and decreased fuel consumption, yet require refilling of a fuel tank rather than slow recharging. Replacement of a heavy and bulky battery with a fuel cell decreases the weight and fuel consumption of the vehicle while freeing cargo space. However, commercially available fuel cell designs are cost prohibitive, due in part to high cost platinum catalysts that are necessary to extract electrons from the fuel. Elimination of platinum will significantly reduce cost, and is possible with a solid-state anion exchange membrane, or AEM, fuel cell design. To be commercialized, the chemical and mechanical stability, performance, and processibility of the AEM must be improved. To realize these goals, this project will develop a new platform for molecular design of polymers which impart multiple segments, or "blocks", that impart different functionalities that enable optimization for the AEM fuel cell.The use of triblock terpolymers from polymerized ionic liquids allows simultaneous integration of functionalities that increase stability, ionic conductivity, and processibility. Using this new chemical platform, membrane synthesis will be optimized with the aid of predictive modeling. Resulting membranes will be fully characterized and then incorporated into fuel cells for testing. Fuel cell performance will be correlated to membrane morphology to provide a feedback loop to optimize molecular design. The project will train one graduate student and multiple underrepresented undergraduate students. A new portable fuel cell demonstration module will be built to educate K-12 students.