Sintesi e sviluppo di materiali per applicazioni energetiche in campo elettrochimico.

Hydrogen production through water electrolysis coupled with renewable energies is raising in scientific and geo-political interest year by year. In this scenario, anion exchange membranes (AEMs) and other technologies for anion exchange water electrolysis (AEMWE) are developing at an incredible speed. Many challenges associated with membranes stability and ion conductivity have already been (partially) solved, optimizing polymers’ architecture and processing. Polybenzimidazole (PBI) and poly(terphenylene) (mTPN) have proven to be extremely promising materials for AEMWE, with PBI standing out due to its excellent ionic conductivity while mTPN due to its surprising chemical stability. These qualities of these two materials have been combined and enhanced even further thanks to clever processing solutions, consisting in the creation of composite membranes with protecting external layers made of cast mTPN and a more conductive internal layer of electrospun PBI nanofibers mat. In this study, we investigate both the influence of electrospinning and solvent casting techniques and layers’ order and cohesion when realising this kind of composite membranes with PBI and mTPN. In particular, after synthetizing the necessary polymers, different membranes have been assembled and characterized in their electrochemical and mechanical properties.