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Poly(arylene ether)s carrying pendant (3‐sulfonated) phenylsulfonyl groups
Author(s) -
Kern Kimberly E,
Abdellatif Mohamed,
Fossum Eric
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
polymer international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.592
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1097-0126
pISSN - 0959-8103
DOI - 10.1002/pi.4218
Subject(s) - arylene , thermogravimetric analysis , polymer chemistry , ether , differential scanning calorimetry , thermal stability , glass transition , sulfonic acid , membrane , copolymer , chemistry , nucleophilic substitution , biphenyl , materials science , aryl , alkyl , organic chemistry , polymer , biochemistry , physics , thermodynamics
A series of poly(arylene ether)s with biphenyl units and pendant sulfonated phenylsulfonyl groups was prepared via nucleophilic aromatic substitution reactions of varying ratios of 3,5‐difluoro‐3′‐sulfonated diphenylsulfone and 4,4′‐difluorodiphenylsulfone with 4,4′‐biphenol. As such, the sulfonic acid moieties reside in the meta position of a pendant, electron‐poor phenylsulfonyl group. Mechanically robust proton‐exchange membranes with ion‐exchange capacities (IEC) ranging from 0.91 to 2.05 meq g −1 were cast from dimethylacetamide. The thermal stability of the membranes was evaluated via thermogravimetric analysis and the 5% weight losses were found to be in excess of 330 °C in air. The glass transition temperatures were determined, via differential scanning calorimetry, to range from a low of 148 to a high of 209 °C at IEC values of 0.91 and 1.79 meq g −1 , respectively. The copolymer membranes reached proton conductivities as high as 142 mS cm −1 under 100% relative humidity, with relatively low water uptake values (8–32 wt%). Copyright © 2012 Society of Chemical Industry