Metal-Organic Frameworks in Membrane of Fuel Cells

Fuel cell is an efficient energy conversion device that converts the chemical energy of the different fuels directly to electricity. The commercialization of the low temperature fuel cells is hindered by the high cost of the electrodes and the unsatisfactory properties of the Nafion membrane. Nafion membrane challenges the low ionic conductivity at low humidity as well as high fuel crossover. Metal organic frameworks demonstrated promising results in different applications including the doping of the low temperature fuel cells’ membranes. This article discusses the progress done in applying the metal organic frameworks (MOFs) with and without functionalizing in improving the properties of the polymer membranes of low temperature fuel cells. Moreover, the actual fuel cell operation using such membranes, i.e., membranes blended with MOFs, were discussed and compared with that using bare ones.