Limin Dong, research scientist with the Materials Research Institute (MRI) at Virginia Tech, will present the groups' findings at the 225th national meeting of the American Chemical Society March 23-27 in New Orleans.
Dong reports that the types of water are free water -- what we would think of as normal water; water that is bound loosely to a polymer, and water that is bound tightly to a polymer. Each behaves differently.
Virginia Tech chemistry professor and MRI director Jim McGrath explains that water carries the active hydrogen molecule (H+) through the fuel cell membrane, from the chamber where hydrogen enters and is separated from its electrons to the chamber where it reacts with oxygen to become a water byproduct (H2O). "Water transports hydrogen protons across the proton exchange membrane. Some forms of water sorb into the film and change it and some forms of water remain free, influencing how fast and efficiently the process takes place," McGrath says.
The poster, "Self-diffusion of water in sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) copolymers by pulse-field-gradient NRM (Poly 564)," coauthored by Dong, Yu S. Kim, Feng Wang, Michael Hickner, professor Thomas Glass, and McGrath, will be presented 6 to 8 p.m., Tuesday, March 25, in Convention Center Hall G.
Three other papers from the McGrath group, Poly 48, 626, and 212 will report new molecular structures for fuel cell materials, both hydrogen and alcohol based.
For more information, please contact Jim McGrath, jmcgrath@vt.edu, (540)231-5976 or Limin Dong, lidong@vt.edu, (540)231-8200
PR CONTACT: Susan Trulove 540-231-5646 strulove@vt.edu