Highly proton conducting electrolyte membranes based on poly(arylene sulfone)s with tetrasulfonated segments
Author
Summary, in English
A series of fully aromatic polymers having only sulfone bridges linking the aromatic rings has been synthesized via polycondensations and studied as proton-exchange membranes. Mixtures of tetrasulfonated 4,4’-bis[(4-chlorophenyl)sulfonyl]-1,1’-biphenyl (BCPSBP), non-sulfonated BCPSBP and 4,4’-thiobisbenzenethiol were copolymerized by nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions to obtain sulfonated poly(arylene thioether sulfone)s (SPATSs) with ion exchange capacities (IECs) between 2.0 and 4.0 meq. g-1. The thioether bridges of the SPATSs were quantitatively oxidized to sulfone bridges to obtain the corresponding sulfonated poly(arylene sulfone)s (SPASs). Small angle X-ray scattering of dry SPATS and SPAS membranes showed that the tetrasulfonated segments promoted a distinct phase separation of the ionic groups already at quite low ionic contents. The SPAS polymers degraded between 300 and 340 ºC in air which was significantly above the degradation temperature of the corresponding SPATSs polymers. Moreover, SPAS membranes showed a significantly lower water uptake than the corresponding SPATS membranes. SPATS and SPAS membranes with IEC values of 2.4 and 2.2 meq. g-1, respectively, maintained high proton conductivity at low relative humidity (RH). At 30% RH and 80 ºC, these membranes reached 8 and 10 mS cm-1, respectively. The latter value coincided with that recorded for the state-of-the-art perfluorinated NRE212 membrane under the same conditions. Thus, the SPAS materials combine a straight-forward synthetic pathway with a very robust polymer structure giving high proton conductivity at reduced RH.
Department/s
Publishing year
2013
Language
English
Pages
3476-3485
Publication/Series
Macromolecules
Volume
46
Issue
9
Document type
Journal article
Publisher
The American Chemical Society (ACS)
Topic
- Chemical Sciences
Keywords
- block copolymers
- ionomers
- polyelectrolytes
- proton-exchange membranes
- transport properties
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0024-9297