2022 Annual Meeting
Wet and Dry Mechanical Testing of Scalable, Cross Linked Anion Exchange Membranes
Anion exchange membranes provide additional options to the worldâs energy demands with fuel cells being a primary research category across the globe. Anion exchange membranes are used in fuel cells to provide a transport of hydroxide (OH-) ions across the membrane from the cathode to the anode. The transport of these hydroxide ions in a reaction crates an electrical potential that is harnessed as electricity. A patent pending material was created by crosslinking a polyelectrolyte, poly(acrylamide-co-diallyldimethylammonium chloride), with glutaraldehyde The crosslinking reaction, occurring in an aqueous solution, has multiple reaction variables that need to be accounted for, including heat, reaction time, amount of catalyst (hydrochloric acid), concentration of reactants in solution, and ratio of reactants in solution. These factors combine to give the anion exchange membrane different properties in chemical testing as well as mechanical properties. Films of different glutaraldehyde concentrations, reaction time, entanglement concentrations, reaction temperature, and thickness were created for testing. The mechanical material properties tested include dry mechanical testing and wet mechanical testing. The mechanical testing was done using an extensional unit with the dry testing being in a forced convection oven and the wet testing utilizing a in-house-built >90% relative humidity oven.