Plenary Speaker
Michael D. Guiver
National 1000-Plan Foreign Experts Professor
State Key Laboratory of Engines (SKLE)
Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin)
Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Email address: Michael.guiver@outlook.com
( Tianjin University email: Guiver@tju.edu.cn )
Short Biography
Michael D. Guiver obtained his BSc (London University) and MSc (Carleton University) in Chemistry, and his PhD in Polymer Chemistry from Carleton University in 1988. He has been an Editor for the Journal of Membrane Science since 2009 and serves on Editorial Boards of some other journals. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and ACS Poly division. From 1987-2014, he was a scientist at the National Research Council Canada. In 2009-2013, he was a visiting professor at the Department of Energy Engineering, Hanyang University, Korea under the “World Class University” program. In 2014, he was appointed as a National 1000-Plan Foreign Experts professor at the State Key Laboratory of Engines, Tianjin University, China. His ongoing research interests are in polymeric membrane materials for fuel cells and gas separations.
“Design approaches enabling hydrocarbon membrane use in PEMFC”
Proton exchange membrane fuel cells are desirable to operate at elevated temperatures and ambient humidity conditions, to improve efficiency, reduce cost and balance of plant humidification. Coating simple HC PEMs with thin hydrophobic coatings generated nanocracked surfaces, which regulates water loss from the PEM at elevated temperatures, and led to good fuel cell performance at low relative humidity [1]. Recently, we reported membranes with through-plane orientated proton-conductive channels [2]. Under a strong magnetic field, a proton-conducting paramagnetic complex based on ferrocyanide-coordinated polymer and phosphotungstic acid was used to prepare composite membranes with highly conductive through-plane-aligned proton channels embedded in a non-ionic thermoplastic membrane to provide mechanical strength. This tethers the water-soluble phosphotungstic acid to the polymer, preventing its leaching out, while the redox couple continuously consumes free radicals generated. The composite membranes exhibit outstanding proton conductivity, fuel cell performance and durability, compared with other types of hydrocarbon membranes and industry standard Nafion 212.
[1] Nature, 532, 480–483 (2016).
[2] Nature Communications, 10, article 842 (2019).