Altering membrane structure to enhance water permeability and performance of anion exchange membrane fuel cell

Water management has been proven significant for enhancing both performance and durability of anion exchange membrane fuel cell. Besides searching new material, decreasing membrane thickness and modifying operation parameters, a simple and universal method of altering membrane structure is proposed in this work. Composite membranes made by unique processing method that includes both casting and electrospinning processes were compared with traditional casting membrane, all with the same thickness of 40 µm. Comparing to traditional casting membrane, the composite membrane put at proper position shows a higher water permeability, thus even more than 50% enhancement of the peak performance.