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Polymers for Fuel Cells

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Encyclopedia of Polymeric Nanomaterials

Synonyms

Solid polymer electrolyte; Polymer electrolyte membrane

Definition

Ion conducting polymer based membranes are used as electrode separators in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells.

Introduction

During the last decades, fuel cells have received increasing attention for their potential to convert chemically bound energy directly into electrical energy with limited environmental impact. Of the different types of fuel cells, systems with polymer-based electrolytes are of special interest for certain applications due to their relatively simple and compact design and high power densities. On the fundamental level, they are further classified according to the nature of ionic-conducting species in the polymer-based electrolyte, i.e., acidic (proton conducting) or alkaline (hydroxide ion conducting) membranes. The type of electrolytes is of importance since it determines the electrochemistry at electrodes as well as the selection of materials for the system components and ultimately...

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Correspondence to Qingfeng Li .

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Aili, D., Jensen, J.O., Li, Q. (2015). Polymers for Fuel Cells. In: Kobayashi, S., Müllen, K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Polymeric Nanomaterials. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-29648-2_270

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