Fundamental Characterization of Fullerenes and Their Applications for Proton- Conducting Materials in PEMFC

In the first section of the paper, AC impedance measurements for C60 and fullerene derivatives have been performed to investigate the fundamental proton-conducting characteristics. The unique difference has been observed among various fullerene derivatives in their proton-conducting characteristics. Discussion is given in terms of the differences in proton conducting mechanism. In the second half, applications of fullerene derivatives to fabricate composite membranes with poly(ether ether ketone) are discussed. Our measurements have shown that the fullerene derivative not only reduced the membrane swelling significantly, but increased the conductivity under low humidity conditions