wileyonlinelibrary.com 1 Full Paper © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim Macromolecular Materials and Engineering DOI: 10.1002/mame.201600301 technologies. [1] The fuel cell (FC) is a device that, as an internal combustion engine, uses a kind of chemical fuel as a source of energy. However, such as a battery, the chemical energy is directly converted to electrical energy, [2] in a very simple and efficient way, overcoming the limita- tions in outcome imposed by a thermal machine cycle, in which the chemical energy is first converted to heat, and only then to electrical or mechanical energy. The current scenario arose once again investors’ and researchers’ interest for this technology in the last ten years. The expectation fed by the current world energy outlook is that this next century be of gradual transi- tion from a “Hydrocarbon Economy” to a “Hydrogen Economy,” with intense decrease of fossil fuel reserves. From the environmental point of view, the substitution of automobiles with internal combustion engines for those moved by hydrogen, for example, can promote air quality and climate conditions improvements, as well as in population health, by the elimination of exhaust gases Hybrid organic–inorganic membranes based on sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (sPEEK), zirconium oxide, and the protic ionic liquid (PIL) diethylmethylamine triflate ([dema][T f OH]) have been synthesized. Their structure has been investigated by X-ray diffraction and small- angle X-ray scattering and correlated to their electrical and thermomechanical properties. The membranes present good mechanical and chemical stabilities, as well as thermal stability over 300 °C. Zirconia contents up to 5 wt% (10 wt% PIL) lead to the formation of isolated zirconia-rich aggregates dispersed in the polymer matrix, constituted of spatially correlated zir- conia nanoparticles. This segregation of zirconia species in nanodomains, interacting with sulfonic groups of sPEEK, inhibits conductivity. Differently, zirconia content of 6 wt% (10 wt% PIL) induces a conductivity much higher than pristine sPEEK, due to the formation of an extended fractal structure in the whole sample, constituted of connected zirconia-rich aggregates. Interaction of PIL molecules with the zirconia aggregates along this extended structure shall form new con- ducting channels for ion transport, favoring conductivity. Structure and Properties of New sPEEK/Zirconia/Protic Ionic Liquid Membranes for Fuel Cell Application João Arthur Ferreira Lunau Batalha,* Karim Dahmouche, Rômulo Batista Sampaio, Ailton de Souza Gomes J. A. F. L. Batalha, A. S. Gomes Instituto de Macromoléculas (IMA) Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) 21945-970 Rio de Janeiro-RJ, Brazil E-mail: jabatalha@yahoo.com.br K. Dahmouche Campus de Xerém Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) Estrada de Xerém, 27 25245-390 Xerém – Duque de Caxias-RJ, Brazil R. B. Sampaio Instituto de Química (IQ) Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) 21945-970 Rio de Janeiro-RJ, Brazil 1. Introduction The concern with environment preservation and the shortage of fossil fuels in a near future has driven the search for new, less polluting, energy generation Early View Publication; these are NOT the final page numbers, use DOI for citation !! Macromol. Mater. Eng. 2016, DOI: 10.1002/mame.201600301