Sen, UnalOzdemir, MehmetErkartal, MustafaKaya, Alaattin MetinManda, Abdullah A.Oveisi, Ali RezaTokumasu, Takashi2025-09-252025-09-2520212227-9717https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9060984https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12573/4183Sen, Unal/0000-0003-3736-5049; Erkartal, Mustafa/0000-0002-9772-128X; Aboudzadeh, M. Ali/0000-0001-8829-8072; Kaya, Alaattin/0000-0002-1940-8749Polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) composed of polymer or polymer blend is a vital element in PEM fuel cell that allows proton transport and serves as a barrier between fuel and oxygen. Understanding the microscopic phase behavior in polymer blends is very crucial to design alternative cost-effective proton-conducting materials. In this study, the mesoscale morphologies of Nafion/poly(1-vinyl-1,2,4-triazole) (Nafion-PVTri) and Nafion/poly(vinyl phosphonic acid) (Nafion-PVPA) blend membranes were studied by dissipative particle dynamics (DPD) simulation technique. Simulation results indicate that both blend membranes can form a phase-separated microstructure due to the different hydrophobic and hydrophilic character of different polymer chains and different segments in the same polymer chain. There is a strong, attractive interaction between the phosphonic acid and sulfonic acid groups and a very strong repulsive interaction between the fluorinated and phosphonic acid groups in the Nafion-PVPA blend membrane. By increasing the PVPA content in the blend membrane, the PVPA clusters' size gradually increases and forms a continuous phase. On the other hand, repulsive interaction between fluorinated and triazole units in the Nafion-PVTri blend is not very strong compared to the Nafion-PVPA blend, which results in different phase behavior in Nafion-PVTri blend membrane. This relatively lower repulsive interaction causes Nafion-PVTri blend membrane to have non-continuous phases regardless of the composition.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessDissipative Particle DynamicsNafionMesoscale MorphologyPoly(1-Vinyl-1,2,4-Triazole)Poly(VinylPhosphonic Acid)Article10.3390/pr90609842-s2.0-85107931640