Joshua Snyder, PhD, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering, received an award from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for his project entitled “Advanced PILBCP Ionomer Composites for Durable Heavy-Duty Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC).”
The project is a part of the Million Mile Fuel Cell Truck Consortium within the U.S. Department of Energy, which aims to make generational leaps in material development, integration and longevity for long duration trucking applications.
This project aims to improve PEMFC performance with new ionomeric materials that create an optimal interface with catalysts. The advanced PILBCP ionomer is composed of a phase segregated structure with distinct polymeric “block” chemistries that are targeted for ionic conductivity, gas permittivity and kinetic enhancement. Improved reactant mobility and optimized reaction kinetics, as well as enhanced material durability, through integration of the new ionomer will address existing limitations in commercial PEMFCs, mitigating many of the sources of active area and activity loss over an extended PEMFC lifetime.