Advisor: Yossef A. Elabd.

Alkaline Anion Exchange Membranes for Fuel Cells Build the fuel cells of the future with this cutting-edge material Alkaline anion exchange membranes (AAEMs) are cutting-edge polyelectrolyte materials with growing renewable energy applications including fuel cells, batteries, hydrogen electrolyzers and electrodialysis technologies. Their use in relatively new alkaline exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) is designed to produce cost-effective clean energy (electricity) produced by a chemical reaction. Rigorous studies are being conducted to meet the requirements of AAEMs precisely tailored for high anion conductivity and durability for future high energy efficient devices. Hence, over the past few years the academic and industrial scientific communities have explored various polymeric, composite and inorganic materials and studied their properties as a potential AAEM. The accumulated literature in this area of investigation is vast and in order to provide the community with the tools needed to strive forward, there is a clear need to condense this information in a single volume. Alkaline Anion Exchange Membranes for Fuel Cells meets this need with a comprehensive overview of the properties of these membranes and their applications. The book considers recent developments, common challenges, and the long-term prospects for this field of research and engineering. It constitutes a one-stop resource for the development and production of AAEM fuel cells and related electrochemical applications. Alkaline Anion Exchange Membranes for Fuel Cells readers will find: Discussion of electrochemical applications like redox flow batteries, water electrolysis, and many more Detailed treatment of specially tailored cationic groups such as quaternary ammonium and guanidinium Expert advice on efficient fabrication and electrode assembly Alkaline Anion Exchange Membranes for Fuel Cells is ideal for electrochemists, materials scientists, polymer chemists, electrical engineers, and anyone working in power technology or related fields.

Alkalies—Advances in Research and Application: 2012 Edition is a ScholarlyEditions™ eBook that delivers timely, authoritative, and comprehensive information about Alkalies. The editors have built Alkalies—Advances in Research and Application: 2012 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Alkalies in this eBook to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Alkalies—Advances in Research and Application: 2012 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.

Anion exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) are an alternative renewable energy source with potential benefits including use of non-precious metal catalysts, facile electro-kinetics, and high power density. Despite these advantages, development of chemically robust and highly conductive anion exchange membranes (AEMs) is the great challenge. The properties of polymeric AEMs depend on many parameters, for example, backbone structures, morphology of membranes, and chemical stability of the ion transporting group. Therefore, all of these interconnected parameters have to be addressed and studied for AEM development. The objectives of this dissertation are 1) to develop durable membranes with high anion conductivity by cost effective materials and methods, and 2) to understand the structure-property relationship by designing polymer structures and membrane morphology. To achieve these goals, the presented research focuses on development of polystyrene (PS) based AEMs by the post-crosslinking method using the click reaction. The first work of this dissertation (chapter 2) was to establish a facile and effective AEM fabrication method. AEMs with optimized ion exchange capacity (IEC) and degree of crosslinking showed the improvement of electrochemical properties and fuel cell performance. Different PS architectures including block and random copolymers with the benchmark cation for AEM, benzyltrimethylammonium (BTMA), were designed and synthesized in our next step (chapter 3). The focus in this particular series was to study the effect of membrane morphology on ion conductive properties. Significant differences were observed between random and block copolymer based AEMs. The nano-scale ordered morphology of the block membranes led to satisfactory ion transport properties as well as improved durability of the membranes. Furthermore, the fuel cell test revealed that the block membranes maintained superior performance after multiple polarization curves in comparison with one of the best commercial AEMs (A201). The stability of cations is another crucial subject for AEM progress. Therefore, a novel AEM with phenyltrimethylammonium (PTMA) was fabricated from the PS based block copolymer, which was designed to avoid cation degradation through the elimination and nucleophilic substitution reactions (chapter 4). The preliminary data indicated that this novel AEM had higher thermal and chemical stability than the BTMA based AEM with similar structure.

Alkaline Anion Exchange Membranes for Fuel Cells Build the fuel cells of the future with this cutting-edge material Alkaline anion exchange membranes (AAEMs) are cutting-edge polyelectrolyte materials with growing renewable energy applications including fuel cells, batteries, hydrogen electrolyzers and electrodialysis technologies. Their use in relatively new alkaline exchange membrane fuel cells (AEMFCs) is designed to produce cost-effective clean energy (electricity) produced by a chemical reaction. Rigorous studies are being conducted to meet the requirements of AAEMs precisely tailored for high anion conductivity and durability for future high energy efficient devices. Hence, over the past few years the academic and industrial scientific communities have explored various polymeric, composite and inorganic materials and studied their properties as a potential AAEM. The accumulated literature in this area of investigation is vast and in order to provide the community with the tools needed to strive forward, there is a clear need to condense this information in a single volume. Alkaline Anion Exchange Membranes for Fuel Cells meets this need with a comprehensive overview of the properties of these membranes and their applications. The book considers recent developments, common challenges, and the long-term prospects for this field of research and engineering. It constitutes a one-stop resource for the development and production of AAEM fuel cells and related electrochemical applications. Alkaline Anion Exchange Membranes for Fuel Cells readers will find: Discussion of electrochemical applications like redox flow batteries, water electrolysis, and many more Detailed treatment of specially tailored cationic groups such as quaternary ammonium and guanidinium Expert advice on efficient fabrication and electrode assembly Alkaline Anion Exchange Membranes for Fuel Cells is ideal for electrochemists, materials scientists, polymer chemists, electrical engineers, and anyone working in power technology or related fields.

Comprehensive Membrane Science and Engineering, Second Edition, Four Volume Set is an interdisciplinary and innovative reference work on membrane science and technology. Written by leading researchers and industry professionals from a range of backgrounds, chapters elaborate on recent and future developments in the field of membrane science and explore how the field has advanced since the previous edition published in 2010. Chapters are written by academics and practitioners across a variety of fields, including chemistry, chemical engineering, material science, physics, biology and food science. Each volume covers a wide spectrum of applications and advanced technologies, such as new membrane materials (e.g. thermally rearranged polymers, polymers of intrinsic microporosity and new hydrophobic fluoropolymer) and processes (e.g. reverse electrodialysis, membrane contractors, membrane crystallization, membrane condenser, membrane dryers and membrane emulsifiers) that have only recently proved their full potential for industrial application. This work covers the latest advances in membrane science, linking fundamental research with real-life practical applications using specially selected case studies of medium and large-scale membrane operations to demonstrate successes and failures with a look to future developments in the field. Contains comprehensive, cutting-edge coverage, helping readers understand the latest theory Offers readers a variety of perspectives on how membrane science and engineering research can be best applied in practice across a range of industries Provides the theory behind the limits, advantages, future developments and failure expectations of local membrane operations in emerging countries