Recently DuPont Fuel Cells introduced DuPont™ Nafion® XL, a new extended life membrane that combines the advantages of mechanical reinforcement with enhanced chemical stability, enabling improved membrane durability. DuPont Fuel Cells is also developing new, highly durable electrodes, that, when coupled with use of the new Nafion® XL membrane, should yield up to ten times longer lifetime over current membrane electrode assemblies.
DuPont™ Nafion® XL offers significantly enhanced membrane durability and mechanical strength. Comparison data shows a greater than 1.5 times increase in tensile strength and over 50 percent reduction in swell over the DuPont™ Nafion® NRE211 membrane. In addition, DuPont™ Nafion® XL demonstrates 30 times lower fluorine emission rates (FER) in open circuit voltage (OCV) and lifetime improvement of greater than 25 percent in the load and relative humidity cycling test. Significant lifetime improvement, coupled with lower FER was observed in the automotive drive cycle test with over 3,500 hours demonstrated in this accelerated lifetime test. These improvements are achieved while maintaining the voltage performance of DuPont™ Nafion® NRE211 membrane.
Also noted on the DuPont Fuel Cell website was the following:
Within the next two years, DuPont, working with their partners, expects to make commercial inroads in the consumer electronics and stationary power markets. Since transportation applications still require fundamental advances in materials, as well as system technologies, the timeline for automotives remains a longer-term prospect.
They can decalre that Within the next two years, DuPont, working with their partners, expects to make commercial inroads in the consumer electronics and stationary power markets.
Posted by: r4 card | October 13, 2011 at 09:51 AM