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Sulphonation of polystyrene‐butadiene rubber with chlorosulphonic acid for proton exchange membrane: Kinetic study
Author(s) -
Idibie C. A.,
Abdulkareem A. S.,
Pienaar H. C. vZ.,
Iyuke S. E.,
vanDyk L.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of applied polymer science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.575
H-Index - 166
eISSN - 1097-4628
pISSN - 0021-8995
DOI - 10.1002/app.31888
Subject(s) - proton , polystyrene , activation energy , kinetics , polymer chemistry , kinetic energy , natural rubber , proton exchange membrane fuel cell , chemistry , membrane , proton nmr , materials science , organic chemistry , polymer , biochemistry , physics , quantum mechanics
Proton exchange membrane for fuel cell application was synthesized from a hydrophobic polystyrene‐butadiene rubber (PSBR) via sulphonation at different temperatures (22, 35, 55, 65, and 75°C) and varying time with chlorosulphonic acid. Infra‐red spectroscopy (IR) and proton nuclear magnetic resonance ( 1 H‐NMR) were used to confirm the occurrence of sulphonation. Sulphonation occurred only on the phenyl ring with a maximum degree of sulphonation of 70.96 mole percent. Consequently, 10 −3 –10 −2 S/cm proton conductivity was achieved. Two models for the reaction kinetics were investigated: first‐order reversible and first‐order irreversible, respectively. However, the reaction kinetic was found to obey the first‐order reversible model. The activation energy ( E a ) of the reaction was calculated to be 41.56 kJ/mol of PSBR repeat unit, which is an indication that the reaction is nonspontaneous. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2010