membranes Article Effect of Membrane Properties on the Carbonation of Anion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells Yiwei Zheng 1, Lyzmarie Nicole Irizarry Colón 1, Noor Ul Hassan 1, Eric R. Williams 2 , Morgan Stefik 2 , Jacob M. LaManna 3, Daniel S. Hussey 3 and William E. Mustain 1,* 1 Department of Chemical Engineering, Swearingen Engineering Center, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA;
[email protected] (Y.Z.);
[email protected] (L.N.I.C.);
[email protected] (N.U.H.) 2 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208, USA;
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[email protected] (M.S.) 3 National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USA;
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[email protected] (D.S.H.) * Correspondence:
[email protected]; Tel.: +1-803-576-6393 Abstract: Anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFC) are potentially very low-cost replacements for proton exchange membrane fuel cells. However, AEMFCs suffer from one very serious drawback: significant performance loss when CO2 is present in the reacting oxidant gas (e.g., air) due to carbonation. Although the chemical mechanisms for how carbonation leads to voltage loss in operating AEMFCs are known, the way those mechanisms are affected by the properties of the anion exchange membrane (AEM) has not been elucidated. Therefore, this work studies AEMFC carbonation using numerous high-functioning AEMs from the literature and it was found that the ionic conductivity of the AEM plays the most critical role in the CO2-related voltage loss from Citation: Zheng, Y.; Irizarry Colón, carbonation, with the degree of AEM crystallinity playing a minor role.