Aromatic polymers incorporating bis-N-spirocyclic quaternary ammonium moieties for anion-exchange membranes

Summary, in English

We have prepared and studied a new class of anion conducting membrane materials functionalized with N-spirocyclic quaternary ammonium (QA) cations formed via cyclo-quaternization reactions involving pyrrolidine, piperidine and azepane, respectively. These groups were introduced in pairs, adjoined through fused phenyl rings along poly(arylene ether sulfone) backbones. Despite their bulkiness, the bis-N-spirocyclic QA moieties efficiently formed ionic clusters in anion-exchange membranes (AEMs) and showed thermal stability up to 309 oC. The bis-N-spirocyclic QA moieties had reasonable alkaline stability and the hydroxide ion conductivity of the AEMs increased with decreasing ring size, and a fully hydrated pyrrolidine-based AEM reached a conductivity of 110 mS cm-1 at 80 oC. The results of this study indicate synthetic pathways to high-performance AEMs based on N-spirocyclic QA groups.

• Author: Thanh Huong Pham; Patric Jannasch
• Department/s: Centre for Analysis and Synthesis
• Publishing year: 2015
• Language: English
• Pages: 1370-1375
• Publication/Series: ACS Macro Letters
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 12
• Links: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsmacrolett.5b00690; http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acsmacrolett.5b00690
• Document type: Journal article
• Publisher: The American Chemical Society (ACS)
• Topic: Chemical Sciences; Polymer Technologies
• Status: Published
• ISBN/ISSN/Other: ISSN: 2161-1653