Determination of the Diffusion Coefficient of Protons in Nafion Thin Films by ac-Electrogravimetry

This letter deals with an adaptation of the ac-electrogravimetry technique to extract separately the dynamic properties of H+ and water in Nafion nanometric thin films (average thickness of 400 nm). An original theoretical approach was developed to extract the representative parameters from ac-electrogravimetry data. The concentration change of the exchanged species and the diffusion coefficient of the protons in a Nafion nanometric thin film (D = 0.5 X 10(-6) cm(2) s(-1) at 0.3 V vs SCE) were estimated for the first time according to the applied potential. The conductivity value of Nafion thin films was calculated from the Nernst-Einstein equation using diffusion coefficients and concentration values extracted from ac-electrogravimetry data. The calculated conductivity results agree well with the experimental proton conductivity values of Nafion thin films.