Low energy plasma treatment of a proton exchange membrane used for low temperature fuel cells

C. Charles; D. Ramdutt; P. Brault; A. Caillard; D. Bulla; R. Boswell; H. Rabat; A. Dicks

doi:10.1088/0741-3335/49/5A/S06

Low energy plasma treatment of a proton exchange membrane used for low temperature fuel cells

C. Charles^*, D. Ramdutt, P. Brault, A. Caillard, D. Bulla, R. Boswell, H. Rabat, A. Dicks

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A low energy (∼30 V) plasma treatment of Nafion, a commercial proton exchange membrane used for low temperature fuel cells, is performed in a helicon radiofrequency (13.56 MHz) plasma system. For argon densities in the 10 ⁹-10¹⁰ cm^-3 range, the water contact angle (hydrophobicity) of the membrane surface linearly decreases with an increase in the plasma energy dose, which is maintained below 5.1 J cm^-2, and which results from the combination of an ion energy dose (up to 3.8 J cm ^-2) and a photon (mostly UV) energy dose (up to 1.3 J cm ^-2). The decrease in water contact angle is essentially a result of the energy brought to the surface by ion bombardment. The measured effect of the energy brought to the surface by UV light is found to be negligible.

Original language	English
Article number	S06
Pages (from-to)	A73-A79
Journal	Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
Volume	49
Issue number	5 A
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1088/0741-3335/49/5A/S06
Publication status	Published - 1 May 2007

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abstract = "A low energy (∼30 V) plasma treatment of Nafion, a commercial proton exchange membrane used for low temperature fuel cells, is performed in a helicon radiofrequency (13.56 MHz) plasma system. For argon densities in the 10 9-1010 cm-3 range, the water contact angle (hydrophobicity) of the membrane surface linearly decreases with an increase in the plasma energy dose, which is maintained below 5.1 J cm-2, and which results from the combination of an ion energy dose (up to 3.8 J cm -2) and a photon (mostly UV) energy dose (up to 1.3 J cm -2). The decrease in water contact angle is essentially a result of the energy brought to the surface by ion bombardment. The measured effect of the energy brought to the surface by UV light is found to be negligible.",

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AU - Charles, C.

AU - Ramdutt, D.

AU - Brault, P.

AU - Caillard, A.

AU - Bulla, D.

AU - Boswell, R.

AU - Rabat, H.

AU - Dicks, A.

PY - 2007/5/1

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AB - A low energy (∼30 V) plasma treatment of Nafion, a commercial proton exchange membrane used for low temperature fuel cells, is performed in a helicon radiofrequency (13.56 MHz) plasma system. For argon densities in the 10 9-1010 cm-3 range, the water contact angle (hydrophobicity) of the membrane surface linearly decreases with an increase in the plasma energy dose, which is maintained below 5.1 J cm-2, and which results from the combination of an ion energy dose (up to 3.8 J cm -2) and a photon (mostly UV) energy dose (up to 1.3 J cm -2). The decrease in water contact angle is essentially a result of the energy brought to the surface by ion bombardment. The measured effect of the energy brought to the surface by UV light is found to be negligible.

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ER -

Low energy plasma treatment of a proton exchange membrane used for low temperature fuel cells

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