[1Ea07-12] SU/EN

[1Ea09] Water Distributions inside Ionomer Thin Films for Fuel Cells Analyzed by in-situ Neutron Reflectometry

*teppei kawamoto¹, Makoto Aoki², Shinji Nohara^1,3, Junji Inukai^1,3,4 (1. Fuel Cell Nanomaterials Center, University of Yamanashi, 2. Organization for Advanced and Integrated Research, Kobe University, 3. Clean Energy Research Center, University of Yamanashi, 4. Institut SEL FUEL, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia)

The polymer electrolytes for fuel cells are formed on SiO₂ and used as 5-nm thick binders on C-supported Pt catalysts. For anion exchange ionomer, the three-dimensional structures in those materials are unknown, which is an obstacle to the design of the anion exchange membrane for durability. Using our developed in-situ neutron reflectometry methods, we found that the structure inside the electrolyte thin film was different over 50 nm on Pt and C, and the water distribution was also significantly different.