A new method to prepare high performance perfluorinated sulfonic acid ionomer/porous expanded polytetrafluoroethylene composite membranes based on perfluorinated sulfonyl fluoride polymer solution

Perfluorinated sulfonyl fluoride (PFSF) resin, the precursor of perfluorinated sulfonic acid (PFSA) ionomer is successfully dissolved in perfluorinated solvents, and its hydrophobic nature is utilized to resolve the difficulty of impregnating hydrophilic PFSA solution into hydrophobic porous expanded polytetrafluoroethylene (ePTFE). The composite membrane fabricated through such simple but effective method is well impregnated, leading to better ionic conductivity and lower gas permeability. The fuel cell constructed with PFSF solution based membranes shows superior performance as compared to that of its aqueous PFSA solution based counterpart, which is comparable to that of commercial Nafion® 211.