Sprecher
Beschreibung
Semicrystalline polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) play an important role in fuel cells and many other electrochemical devices. The desired PEM materials should have balanced properties of high conductivity and long-term operating stability in hydrated state. To advance PEMs development, it is crucial to consider not only the new molecular design, but also the creation of robust ion-conducting channels through micro-/nano-phase separation with a deep understanding of structure-property correlations.
In this work, the hierarchical structure of advanced PEMs prepared by radiation-induced graft polymerization technique using a 60Co γ-ray source @ QST-Takasaki, Japan, was investigated in a length scale range of sub- to several hundred-nanometer using the combination of a contrast variation small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) with partial scattering function analysis, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and simulations. Toward applying Materials Informatics, the structural datasets of PEMs were constructed by both scattering data and scattering-validated simulations, relating to the ion conduction efficiency, which is the most required performance of the practical fuel cells. This approach as a new tool and methodology is exciting for accelerating materials discovery and development.