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Understanding the ionic activity of membrane surfaces will aid the development of better fuel cells.
This picture shows that, due to the bi-phasic nature of polymeric proton conducting membranes, only a fraction of a membrane surface is ionic conductive. Consequently, when a catalyst is applied to this surface, only part of the catalyst may be utilized. Such knowledge will be used to develop a membrane with higher surface ionic activity for use in regenerative hydrogen-bromine fuel cell systems, which can efficiently store energy. (This picture is obtained by Electrochemical Atomic Force Microscopy, a technique pioneered by PI Trung Nguyen at the University of Kansas.)
Credit: Trung Nguyen at U. Kansas/ Da-Ming Zhu at U. Missouri - Kansas City
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