Shouping Wang,Fugang He,Qiang Weng,Diao Yuan,Pei Chen,Xinbing Chen,Zhongwei An
A series of novel crosslinkable side-chain sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) copolymers (S-SPAES(x/y)) was prepared from 4,4′-biphenol, 4,4′-difluorodiphenyl sulfone, and a new difluoro aromatic monomer 1-(2,6-difluorophenyl)-2-(3,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-1,2-ethanedione (DFDMED) via co-polycondensation, demethylation, and further nucleophilic substitution of 1,4-butane sultone. Meanwhile, quinoxaline-based crosslinked copolymers (CS-SPAES(x/y)) were obtained via cyclo-condensation between S-SPAES(x/y) and 3,3′-diaminobenzidine. Both the crosslinkable and crosslinked copolymer membranes exhibit good mechanical properties and high anisotropic membrane swelling. Crosslinkable S-SPAES(1/2) with an ion exchange capacity (IEC) of 2.01 mequiv. g−1 displays a relatively high proton conductivity of 180 mS cm−1 and acceptable single-cell performance, which is attributed to its good microphase separation resulting from the side-chain sulfonated copolymer structures. Compared with S-SPAES(1/1) (IEC of 1.68 mequiv. g−1), crosslinked CS-SPAES(1/2) with a comparable IEC exhibits a larger conductivity of 157 mS cm−1, and significantly higher oxidative stability and lower membrane swelling, suggesting a distinct performance improvement due to the quinoxaline-based crosslinking.
Lei Jinxuan,Meng Lingxin,Zhao Pengyun,Wang Jiayin,Lan Tian,Xu Jingmei
A series of poly(aryl ether ketone sulfone) polymers (C-PAEKS-DBS) were synthesized from 4-carboxyphenyl hydroquinone, allyl bisphenol S, and 4,4-difluorobenzophenone by nucleophilic polycondensation. And further a series of side chain sulfonated poly(aryl ether ketone sulfone) proton exchange membranes (CPDA-x) were prepared by simply introducing hydrophilic long alkyl side chains (AMPS) into the polymers by means of double bond cross-linking. The structure of the prepared CPDA-x were characterized by FT-IR, 1 H NMR and SEM. This series of composite membranes showed excellent dimensional stability which including moderate water absorption (ranging from 27.91% to 33.33% at 80 °C) and low swelling ratio (ranging from 10.26% to 16.67% at 80 °C). In addition, the prepared films also exhibited high oxidative stability and mechanical property. This simple strategy for the producing of proton exchange membranes (PEMs) has certain potential and may be applied to the producing of fuel cell membranes with hydrophilic and hydrophobic phase separation structures.