Introduction, History, and Definition of Solid Polymer Electrolytes
The first patent application for using a membrane made of an ion exchange polymer as a “solid polymer electrolyte” (SPE) rather than a conventional conductive liquid electrolyte was in 1955 [1]. The goal was to overcome the problems of liquid electrolytes in fuel cells with gaseous reactants. Cation exchange materials – working as proton conductors like sulfonated polystyrene – as well as anion exchange materials, working as hydroxyl ion conductors, were proposed, and the principle was verified experimentally. Later on, an important step for its technical realization was Nafion® (Dupont), a perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) polymer with high chemical and thermal stability, which was used in fuel cells of the Gemini space program 1966. Today, research dedicated to the “proton exchange membrane fuel cell” (PEMFC, also called “polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell” or simpler “polymer electrolyte fuel cell” (PEFC)) has...
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Jörissen, J. (2014). Electrosynthesis Using Solid Polymer Electrolytes (SPE). In: Kreysa, G., Ota, Ki., Savinell, R.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Applied Electrochemistry. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6996-5_487
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