Inorganic Organic Hybrid Porous Silica for Fuel Cell Technology

30 mol% HS/SO₃H containing inorganic organic Hybrid Porous Silica (HO₃S-HPS) and polymer polyvinyledenefluoride-hexafluropropene (PVDF-HFP) was mixed together to produce 10 to 150 thick membrane (SO₃H-HPS-PVDF-HFP). Proton conductivity of resultant HO₃S-HPS before and after mixing with PVDF-HFP determined in dry nitrogen and 100% relative humidity (RH) using impedance spectroscopy. 30 mol% SO₃H-HPS-PVDF-HFP shows proton conductivity ca. 10^-2 S/cm. Nafion117 also shows proton conductivity 10^-2 S/cm at 25 °C and 100% relative humidity. Membrane electrode assembly (MEA) was developed and used in direct methanol fuel cell technology. 64 mW/cm" power density of the MEA using single cell was observed at 80 °C. Materials were characterized using various instrumental techniques, such as ICP, XRD, TG-DTA, XPS, N₂ sorption, ²⁹Si and ¹³C MAS NMR, FT-IR and particle size analyzer.