PROTON-CONDUCTING POLYMER MEMBRANE CONTAINING POLYAZOLE BLENDS, AND APPLICATION THEREOF IN FUEL CELLS

A proton-conducting polymer membrane containing a polyazole blend is obtained by making a mixture containing polyphosphoric acid and polyazole and/or compounds which form polyazoles on heating, adding a non-polyazole polymer, then heating and processing to form a self-supporting membrane. A proton-conducting polymer membrane containing a polyazole blend, obtained by (A) making a mixture containing polyphosphoric acid (PPA), polyazole(s) (polymer A) and/or compounds which form polyazoles when heated, (B) heating the mixture at up to 400degreesC under inert gas, (C) coating the mixture (from step A and/or B) onto a support and (D) applying suitable treatment to the resulting membrane until it is self-supporting. In this process, non-polyazole polymer(s) (B) is/are added to the composition obtained in step A and/or B in a wt. ratio of (polyazole A):(polymer B) = 0.1-50. Independent claims are also included for (1) electrodes with a conductive polymer coating made by the above method, but using an electrode as the support in step (C) (2) membrane-electrode units containing electrode(s) and membrane(s) as above (3) fuel cells containing such membrane-electrode units