High-performance imidazole-containing polymers for applications in high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

This work focuses on the development of high temperature polymer electrolyte membranes(HT-PEMs)as key materials for HT-PEM fuel cells(HT-PEMFCs).Recognizing the challenges associated with the phosphoric acid(PA) doped polybenzimidazole(PBI) membranes,including the use of carcinogenic monomers and complex synthesis procedures,this study aims to develop more cost-effective,readily synthesized,and high-performance alternatives.A series of superacid-catalyzed polyhydroxyalkylation reactions have been carefully designed between p-terphenyl and aldehydes bearing imidazole moieties,resulting in a new class of HT-PEMs.It is found that the chemical structure of aldehyde-substituted N-heterocycles significantly impacts the polymerization reaction.Specifically,the use of 1-methyl-2-imidazole-formaldehyde and 1 H-imidazole-4-formaldehyde monomers leads to the formation of high-viscosity,rigid,and ether-free polymers,denoted as PTIm-a and PTIm-b.Membranes fabricated from these polymers,due to their pendent imidazole groups,exhibit an exceptional capacity for PA absorption.Notably,PTIm-a,carrying methylimidazole moieties,demonstrates a superior chemical stability by maintaining morphology and structural stability during 350 h of Fenton testing.After being immersed in 75 wt% PA at 40℃,the PTIm-a membrane reaches a PA content of 152%,maintains a good tensile strength of 13.6 MPa,and exhibits a moderate conductivity of 50.2 mS cm^(-1) at 180℃.Under H_(2)/O_(2) operational conditions,a single cell based on the PTIm-a membrane attains a peak power density of 732 mW cm^(-2) at 180℃ without backpressure.Furthermore,the membrane demonstrates stable cycle stability over 173 h within 18 days at a current density of 200 mA cm^(-2),indicating its potential for practical application in HT-PEMFCs.This work highlights innovative strategies for the synthesis of advanced HT-PEMs,offering significant improvements in membrane properties and fuel cell performance,thus expanding the horizons of HT-PEMFC technology.

Study on kinetics of propylene polymerizationat different temperatures via Monte Carlo simulation

The elementary reactions of propylene polymerization catalyzed by conventional Ziegler-Natta catalysts was proposed according to the comprehensive view and without considering the effect of any impurity in the material on propylene polymerization. The Monte Carlo simulation technique was employed to investigate the kinetics of propylene polymerization in order to determine the validity of the stationary state assumption and the effects of the polymerization temperature on the polymerization. The simulated total amount of active species, which only increases quickly at the beginning of the polymerization, indicates that the stationary state assumption in the studied system is valid. Moreover, significant effects of polymerization temperature on the polymerization conversion, and the molecular weight and its distribution were also analyzed. The simulated results show that the consumption rate of propylene increases with the increase of polymerization temperature; the maximum values of the number-average degree of polymerization are constant at different polymerization temperatures, however, the peak appears earlier with the higher temperature; as the polymerization temperature increases, the average molecular weight decreases and the molecular weight distribution changes greatly.

Temperature-dependent Hydrothermal Synthesis of Two Distinct Three-dimensional Copper Complexes

Two distinct copper coordination polymers, namely [Cu^Ⅱ2（2,5-pydc）2（bpp）2]·H2O（1） and Cu2^ⅠCu^Ⅱ（2,5-pydc）2（bpp）2（2）（2,5-pydc = pyridine-2,5-dicarboxylic acid, bpp = 1,3-bi（4-pyridyl）propane）, have been successfully synthesized through hydrothermal conditions under different temperatures. Single-crystal X-ray structural analysis revealed that both complexes 1 and 2 are 3D frameworks. Complex 1 is an 8-connected 2-fold interpenetrating network based on [Cu（2,5-pydc）]4 molecular building block（MBB）, and also can be simplified as a 4-connected net if the Cu（Ⅱ） ion is regarded as an independent node, whereas 2 shows a（4,4）-connected non-interpenetrated framework which contains mixed valence Cu（Ⅰ/Ⅱ） centers. The results demonstrate that temperature plays a significant role in the final structures of the complexes.

Water-induced electrode poisoning and the mitigation strategy for high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

Engineering failure of membrane electrode assembly caused by increasingly fuel poisoning in the high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells fed with humidified reformate gases is firstly demonstrated herein this work. Based on the results of the in-situ environmental scanning electron microscope, electrochemical analyses, and limiting current method, a water-induced phosphoric acid invasion model is constructed in the porous electrode to elucidate the failure causations of the hindered hydrogen mass transport and the enhanced carbon monoxide poisoning. To optimize the phosphoric acid distribution under the inevitably humidified circumstance, a facile and effective strategy of constructing acid-proofed electrode is proposed and demonstrates outstanding stability with highly humidified reformate gases as anode fuel. This work discusses a potential defect that was rarely studied previously under practical working circumstance for high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells, providing an alternative opinion of electrode design based on the fundamental aspects towards the engineering problems.

The effect of grafted alkyl side chains on the properties of poly(terphenyl piperidinium) based high temperature proton exchange membranes

High temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells(HT-PEMFCs)operating at elevated temperatures above 120℃ take advantage of feasible anode fuels and simplified water/heat management.A high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane(HT-PEM)is the core material for HT-PEMFCs.In this work,a series of phosphoric acid(PA)doped HT-PEMs based on poly(terphenyl piperidine)(PTP)tailored with alkyl groups are synthesized.Five different pendant alkyl groups(including methyl,propyl,pentyl,heptyl and decyl)are grafted onto the piperidine group through the Menshutkin reaction between PTP and alkyl halides.Compared with PTP and methyl grafted PTP(PTP-C1)membranes,the PTP-Cx membranes with long alkyl side chains exhibit improved PA doping contents and conductivities.The optimized pentylsubstituted PTP membrane(PTP-C5)possessed a reasonable PA doping content(202%after immersing in 85 wt%PA at 60℃),high proton conductivity(96 mS cm^(-1) at 180℃)and good tensile strength(4.6 MPa at room temperature).A H_(2)–air single cell equipped with PTP-C5/PA consequently achieved a high peak power density of 676 mW cm^(-2) at 210℃ without any humidification or backpressure.Thus,this work provides a simple method for preparing high-performance HT-PEMs.

Effect of ionic liquids on stability of O/W miniemulsion for application of low emission coating products

Room temperature ionic liquids(RTILs) are non-volatile organic salts. They may replace conventional coalescing agents in latex coating thus reducing volatile organic compounds(VOCs) emission as well as improving performance of latex coating products such as better thermal stability, conductivity, and antifouling property. The formation of latex coating containing RTILs can be achieved by encapsulation of RTILs inside particles via miniemulsion polymerization. In this study, the role of RTILs and its concentration on stability of miniemulsion during storage and polymerization were investigated. It has been found that, above a critical concentration(10 wt%), adding more RTILs to oil phase may weaken miniemulsion stability during storage as well as polymerization. Such observations were consistent with the zeta potential measurement for miniemulsions prepared at the similar conditions. The results obtained here would be a useful guideline for the development of new waterborne coating products with desirable functions and particle sizes.

Phosphorus induced activity-enhancement of Fe-N-C catalysts for high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells

Fe-N-C materials with atomically dispersed Fe–N_(4) sites could tolerate the poisoning of phosphate,is regarded as the most promising alternative to costly Pt-based catalysts for the oxygen reduction in high temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells(HT-PEMFCs).However,they still face the critical issue of insufficient activity in phosphoric acid.Herein,we demonstrate a P-doping strategy to increase the activity of Fe-N-C catalyst via a feasible one-pot method.X-ray absorption spectroscopy and electron microscopy with atomic resolution indicated that the P atom is bonded with the N in Fe–N_(4) site through C atoms.The as prepared Fe-NCP catalyst shows a half-wave potential of 0.75 V(vs.reversible hydrogen electrode(RHE),0.1 M H_(3)PO_(4)),which is 60 and 40 mV higher than that of Fe-NC and commercial Pt/C catalysts,respectively.More importantly,the Fe-NCP catalyst could deliver a peak power density of 357 mW·cm^(−2)in a high temperature fuel cell(160℃),exceeding the non-noble-metal catalysts ever reported.The enhancement of activity is attributed to the increasing charge density and poisoning tolerance of Fe–N_(4) caused by neighboring P.This work not only promotes the practical application of Fe-N-C materials in HT-PEMFCs,but also provides a feasible P-doping method for regulating the structure of single atom site.

A universal strategy for achieving dual cross-linked networks to obtain ultralong polymeric room temperature phosphorescence

Efficient polymeric room-temperature phosphorescence(PRTP)with excellent processability and flexibility is highly desirable but still faces formidable challenge.Herein,a general strategy is developed for efficient PRTP through photo-polymerization of phosphor monomers and N-isopropylacrylamide(NIPAM)spontaneously without a crosslinker.Remarkably ultralong lifetime of 3.54 s with afterglow duration time of 25 s and decent phosphorescent quantum efficiency of 13%are achieved.This efficient PRTP has been demonstrated to be derived from the synergistic effect of the covalent and hydrogen bonds networks formed through photo-polymerization of NIPAM.The electron paramagnetic resonance(EPR)spectra confirmed that methyl radicals are generated under the irradiation of ultraviolet light and promote the formation of covalent cross-linking networks.This strategy has also been proved to be generalizable to several other phosphor monomers.Interestingly,the polymer films display ultrahigh temperature resistance with long afterglows even at 140℃ and unexampled ultralong lifetime of 2.45 s in aqueous solutions.This work provides a simple and feasible avenue to obtain efficient PRTP.

PSO Optimal Control of Model-free Adaptive Control for PVC Polymerization Process

Polyvinyl chloride （PVC） polymerizing process is a typical complicated industrial process with the characteristics of large inertia, big time delay and nonlinearity. Firstly, for the general nonlinear and discrete time system, a design scheme of model-free adaptive （MFA） controller is given. Then, particle swarm optimization （PSO） algorithm is applied to optimizing and setting the key parameters for controller tuning. After that, the MFA controller is used to control the system of polymerizing temperature. Finally, simulation results are given to show that the MAC strategy based on PSO obtains a good controlling performance index.

Electrical properties of structures based on varistor ceramics and polymer nanocomposites with carbon filler

The characteristics of a two-layer structure on the basis of the layers of varistor ceramics and polymeric PPTC nanocomposite being in thermal contact for the purpose of using it as a limiter of constant voltage and long-term varying electrical overvoltages are analyzed.A theoretical model of such a structure has been developed,and its main electrical characteristics are simulated.It is shown that the provision of the required output voltage limitation is performed by selecting the classification voltage of the varistor layer.The maximum current of the varistor layer required for heating the structure is determined by the intensity of heat transfer to the environment.It has established a satisfactory agreement between the theoretical and experimental electrical characteristics for the structure based on the layers used in commercial varistors and PPTC fuses.