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Fully Aromatic Block Copolymers for Fuel Cell Membranes with Densely Sulfonated Nanophase Domains
Author(s) -
Takamuku Shogo,
Jannasch Patric
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
macromolecular rapid communications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.348
H-Index - 154
eISSN - 1521-3927
pISSN - 1022-1336
DOI - 10.1002/marc.201000683
Subject(s) - copolymer , arylene , sulfone , membrane , sulfonic acid , polymer chemistry , proton exchange membrane fuel cell , materials science , ether , ion exchange , block (permutation group theory) , chemistry , composite material , organic chemistry , ion , polymer , aryl , geometry , biochemistry , alkyl , mathematics
Two multiblock copoly(arylene ether sulfone)s with similar block lengths and ion exchange capacities (IECs) were prepared by a coupling reaction between a non‐sulfonated precursor block and a highly sulfonated precursor block containing either fully disulfonated diarylsulfone or fully tetrasulfonated tetraaryldisulfone segments. The latter two precursor blocks were sulfonated via lithiation‐sulfination reactions whereby the sulfonic acid groups were exclusively placed in ortho positions to the many sulfone bridges, giving these blocks IECs of 4.1 and 4.6 meq·g −1 , respectively. Copolymer membranes with IECs of 1.4 meq·g −1 displayed well‐connected hydrophilic nanophase domains and had decomposition temperatures at, or above, 300 °C under air. The copolymer with the tetrasulfonated tetraaryldisulfone segments showed a proton conductivity of 0.13 S·cm −1 at 80 °C under fully humidified conditions, and surpassed that of a perfluorosulfonic acid membrane (NRE212) by a factor of 5 at –20 °C over time.