Constructing stable continuous proton transport channels by in-situ preparation of covalent triazine-based frameworks in phosphoric acid-doped polybenzimidazole for high-temperature proton exchange membranes

Phosphoric acid (PA)-doped high-temperature proton exchange membranes (HTPEMs) suffer from low efficiency of proton transport and severe PA leakage. Constructing a stable continuous proton transport channel may be a promising method to address the above issues. Herein, a stable proton transport channel was constructed for the first time by in-situ preparing covalent triazine-based frameworks (CTFs) in polybenzimidazole under a mild trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (TFA) catalysis condition. The membranes were prepared with CTFs loading from 10% to 40%, and the properties of the membranes were characterized carefully. The membrane containing 30% CTFs showed some attractive properties, such as high conductivity (74.8 mS cm(-1)) under low PA doping level (167.1%), low volume swelling (71.8%), and high PA retention ability (89.5%). Importantly, under the same PA doping level, the single fuel cell assembled with the composite membranes showed a higher peak power density (534.4 mW cm(-2)) than that of poly [2,2'-(p-oxydiphenylene)-5,5'-benzimidazole] (OPBI) (325.2 mW cm(-2)). The results prove that constructing a stable proton transport channel can improve the properties of the membranes and the prepared membranes can potentially be used as HTPEMs.

Automated summary

In this research, a stable proton transport channel was constructed for the first time through in-situ preparing CTFs in PBI under mild TFA catalysis. Membranes containing 30% CTFs showed the best performance, with high conductivity, low volume swelling, and high PA retention ability. The study demonstrates that constructing a stable proton transport channel can significantly improve the properties of HTPEMs.