Khadijeh Hooshyari - Department of Chemistry, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, IranSolar Cell and Fuel Cell Lab, Renewable Energy Research Center, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Mehran Javanbakht - Department of Chemistry, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, IranSolar Cell and Fuel Cell Lab, Renewable Energy Research Center, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

In this work, dicationic ionic liquid (IL) 1,6-di(3-methylimidazolium) hexane bis (hexafluorophate) (DC) was used for improving the proton conductivity of Poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) based polymer electrolyte membranes. The PVA-DC composite membranes are prepared as electrolytes for high temperature fuel cells applications. The PVA-DC composite membranes demonstrated high proton conductivity, mechanical and thermal stability compared with PVA membranes. The highest proton conductivity of 60 mS/cm is achieved for PVA-DC composite membranes with PVA/IL mass fraction: 11 at 70 ºC.

Poly(vinyl alcohol), polymer electrolyte membranes, proton conductivity, dicationic ionic liquid