Patterning Polymer Electrolyte Membrane for Fuel Cell and Electrolysis Applications

Patterning polymer electrolyte membrane offers the prospect for enhancing the thermodynamic efficiency for a wide range of electrochemical systems that utilize membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs). In this work, several different polymer electrolyte membrane chemistries (both proton exchange and hydroxide exchange membranes) were patterned via conventional soft lithography using poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) molds. The patterned membranes displayed excellent pattern fidelity after dropcasting on the PDMS mold. Various structures and feature sizes were generated using the versatile soft lithography approach. This report concludes with preliminary results of patterned membranes for proton exchange and hydroxide exchange membrane fuel cells and proton exchange membrane water electrolysis. These preliminary results convey that mass transfer resistances are more prominent in patterned membranes over non patterned membranes.