PbS Nanoparticles Dispersed in Acid–Base Pair Polymer Nanocomposite Foams for High-Temperature Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell Applications

To replace commercial Nafion membranes in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) applications, high-level research has lately focused heavily on developing polymer nanocomposite membranes with greater proton conductivity (PC), peak power density (PD), open circuit voltage (OCV), and cheaper cost. The aminated triazine containing poly(aryl-aliphatic ethers) (PA-APAAEs) are synthesized via the Schiff base approach, and their functional groups and chemical structure were analyzed using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR, and DEPT 13 C NMR. PbS nanoparticles (NPs) are prepared through a one-pot hydrothermal method, and their particle size, morphology, and crystallographic nature were investigated through high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) analyses. The present study describes a solvent-casting process for producing PbS nanoparticles (1–7 wt %) dispersed in phosphoric acid (PA)-doped triazine ring-containing aminated poly(arylene-aliphatic ethers) (PA-APAAEs) polymer nanocomposite (PNC) foams, and their high-temperature polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (HT-PEMFC) performance was evaluated. Additionally, the evaluation of typical physiochemical properties, including ion exchange capacity (IEC), water uptake (WU), swelling ratio (SR), porosity, proton conductivity (PC), and oxidative stability (OS), was done on both bare and PbS NPs-loaded PA/PA-APAAEs polymer nanocomposite (PNC) foams. 5 wt % PbS nanoparticles introduced into PA/PA-APAAEs PNC foams had the greatest IEC rate of 3.46 mmol g –1 at room temperature (RT), as well as a PC value of 3.42 10 –2 S cm –1 at 150 °C for the PA-APAAEs foams. Furthermore, under anhydrous circumstances, the fuel cell test of the 5% PbS NPs-loaded PA-APAAEs PNC foam membrane yielded PD and OCV values of 0.525 W cm –2 and 0.55 V at 150 °C, respectively. At 100 °C for 6 h, the PNC exhibited excellent OS with 93.6% deterioration toward the Fenton reagent.