Amelioration of PEMFC performance at high temperature by incorporation of nanofiller (sepiolite/layered double hydroxide) in Nafion membrane Khaled Charradi a,* , Zakarya Ahmed a,b , Ricardo Escudero Cid c , Pilar Aranda d,** , Eduardo Ruiz-Hitzky d , Pilar Ocon c,*** , Radhouane Chtourou a a Nanomaterials and Systems for Renewable Energy Laboratory, Research and Technology Center of Energy, Technoparc Borje Cedria BP 095 Hammam Lif, Tunisia b High School of Science and Technology of Hammam Sousse, Tunisia c Universidad Aut onoma de Madrid, Departamento de Quı´mica Fı´sica Aplicada, C/Francisco Tom as y Valiente 7, 28049 Madrid, Spain d Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, CSIC, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz 3 Ce antoblanco, 28049 Madrid, Spain article info Article history: Received 10 December 2018 Received in revised form 8 February 2019 Accepted 23 February 2019 Available online xxx Keywords: LDH Sepiolite Nafion membrane PEMFC Nanocomposites abstract Nanoheterostructured material composed of sepiolite clay mineral in which is assembled a MgAl layered double hydroxide (LDH) was used in the preparation of Nafion composite electrolyte membranes and their behavior compared to those of membranes filled with the LDH alone. Both, the neat MgAl LDH and the MgAl LDH-sepiolite hybrid materials were obtained via the co-precipitation method. Sepiolite fibers provide a large external surface area for bonding MgAl LDH particles while maintaining high microporosity and water molecules. The nanocomposite membranes were prepared incorporating different amount of LDH or LDH-sepiolite hybrid. Composite membranes present better water retention, good thermal properties and high proton conductivities at high temperatures than the pure Nafion membrane. The proton conductivity at 100  C and 100% RH reaches a value of 0.13 S/ cm for the LDH-sepiolite Nafion membrane whereas is only 0.010 S/cm in the case of the Nafion membrane. Fuel cell tests using Nafion membranes containing LDH or LDH- sepiolite hybrid as composite electrolytes show a good result for the operation of the PEMFC at 80  C, 100  C and 110  C, with a clear favoring effect of the LDH-sepiolite filler for operation at the highest temperatures. © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. * Corresponding author. ** Corresponding author. *** Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: charradikaled2010@gmail.com (K. Charradi), pilar.aranda@csic.es (P. Aranda), pilar.ocon@uam.es (P. Ocon). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (xxxx) xxx https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2019.02.183 0360-3199/© 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Please cite this article as: Charradi K et al., Amelioration of PEMFC performance at high temperature by incorporation of nanofiller (sepiolite/layered double hydroxide) in Nafion membrane, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, https://doi.org/10.1016/ j.ijhydene.2019.02.183