Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells: A Sustainable Approach Towards Energy Generation

Fuel cell technologies are on the verge of creating new milestones in energy conversion devices in the automobile, portable, and transportation sectors. This review article summarizes all types of fuel cells. Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have earned massive attention due to their high efficiency, light weight, rapid startup ability, low noise, and net-zero carbon emissions. The perfluorinated sulfonic acid-based membranes are the most utilized proton exchange membrane (PEM) materials; however, they have severe disadvantages. Henceforth, there is a noteworthy urge to develop alternative PEMs for PEMFC applications. The current research aims to design and develop alternative hydrocarbon-based membranes with improved properties and performance for PEMFC applications. This review starts with the essential components and the working principle of the PEMFC. Then, it explores the recent advances in various alternative sulfonated PEM materials for PEMFC applications, highlighting their synthetic process, PEM properties, and single-cell performances. Unlike a particular PEMFC-related topics review, this literature review emphasizes a comprehensive review of recent advances in the field of various types of hydrocarbon-based alternative sulfonated PEM materials, such as sulfonated polyamides, sulfonated poly(arylene ether)s, sulfonated poly(arylene thioether)s, sulfonated polybenzimidazoles, sulfonated polyimides, sulfonated poly(phenylene alkane)s, sulfonated polytriazoles, sulfonated polybenzothiazoles, sulfonated polyoxadiazoles, etc.