Simulation of Hydrated Nafion as Fuel Cell Membrane by Dissipative Particle Dynamics

The microphase separation of hydrated perfluorinated sulfonic acid membrane Nafion wasinvestigated using Dissipative Particle Dynamics (DPD). The Nafion as a polymer was modelled by connectingcoarse grained beads which corresponds to the hydrophobic backbone of polytetrafluoroethylene andperfluorinated side chains terminated by hydrophilic end particles of sulfonic acid groups. The morphology ofhydrated Nafion is studied for polymer molecular weight of 5720, 11440 and 17160 in water content of 10%,20% and 30%. The results show water particles and hydrophilic particles of Nafion side chains spontaneouslyform aggregates and are embedded in the hydrophobic phase of Nafion backbone. The averaged water porediameter and the averaged water clusters distance were found to rises with water volume fraction.

کلیدواژه ها:

Fuel cell ، Membrane ، Nafion ، Mesosacle ، DPD