It has been fun here at Giner Electrochemical Systems watching some smart people conceive of and develop a fundamentally different proton exchange membrane (PEM). This new Dimensionally Stable Membrane (DSM™) offers a marked improvement in mechanical properties over conventional PEM membranes like DuPont's Nafion® 112.
Recently released U.S. Patent 7,867,669, Solid polymer electrolyte composite membrane comprising laser micromachined porous support describes a new Giner patent covering another aspect of its structure. In this patent, a perforated sheet of a strong engineering plastic has its holes filled with (for instance) a low equivalent-weight PEM material. Subsequently, different equivalent weight PEM is added to both sides of the central sheet. This composite DSM material shows stellar mechanical stability compared to the “gold-standard” DuPont Nafion 112 (Nafion) with a creep rate, as well as X-Y in-plane swelling at least one order of magnitude lower than Nafion.
This new material can be used in hydrogen fuel cells, direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC), electrolyzers, and for any application that uses PEM, to provide improved electrochemical performance. For instance, in 2008, Giner demonstrated DSM™ membrane on a 160 cm2 active area cell that met the DOE’s electrolyzer performance targets for 2012.
Congratulations Han, Tony, Corky, Tom, and everyone else working on DSM!
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