Sulfonated polyimidesfor fuel cell electrode membrane assemblies (EMA)

The state of the art in the field of fuel cell technol. shows that Nafion is a well-known std. for its use as polymeric proton exchange membrane. Indeed, this material is characterized by very high performance and durability. However, some limitations could prevent a wide industrial scale development such as the manufg. cost, and to some extent difficulties encountered to recycle the EMA related to the high chem. stability of the perfluorinated materials. However, over the last few years, an important research activity has been devoted to propose an alternative system and, as a consequence, has led to the synthesis of a large array of sulfonated non fluorinated polymers. In this perspective, we are interested in developing proton exchange membranes based on sulfonated polyimides. This work reports the performance obtained with such membranes, in a new design EMA.