Structural and proton conductivity study of P2O5-TiO2-SiO2 glasses

Proton conducting membranes for hydrogen fuel cell applications are being developed using sol–gel-derived P2O5-TiO2-SiO2 glasses. The present work is devoted to the structural analysis of P2O5-TiO2-SiO2 glasses containing controlled pore sizes and the surface area of the glasses reaching a maximum 410 m2/g, while the average pore diameter is about 2.4 nm. They were characterized by nitrogen adsorption–desorption measurements, thermal measurement as well as FTIR spectroscopy. The structural studies were based on the evolution of the intensities and profiles of certain characteristics bands in the FTIR spectra. In order to increase proton conductivity at low relative humidity, the result suggests that the mobility of proton in the P2O5-TiO2-SiO2 glasses increases with decreasing OH bonding strength. An H2/O2 fuel cell was constructed using the P2O5-TiO2-SiO2 glasses as electrolyte and Pt/C-loaded carbon paper sheets as electrodes. Results show that the performance of the cell is an output power of 88 μW/cm2 at 30 °C with humidity.