Nanohybrid Nafion Membranes for Fuel Cells

We review strategies to produce Nafion nanohybrid membranes with improved properties based on functionalized silica and clay nanoparticles. Two distinct approaches are presented here: a) the use of H + -exchanged clay platelets to act as physical barriers to methanol diffusion, while having high levels of ionic mobility and b) the application of depletion forces to construct a compact microstructure based on the assembly of clay platelets. Both classes of hybrids exhibit significantly improved selectivity (ratio of ionic conductivity over methanol permeability) and dramatically enhanced thermomechanical properties. Those characteristics are highly desirable for fuel cell applications and strongly depend on the morphological features of the membranes.