Open AccessThe impact of alkyl tri‐methyl ammonium side chains on perfluorinated ionic membranes for electrochemical applications
Author(s) -
Divekar Ashutosh G.,
Kuo MeiChen,
Park Andrew M.,
Motz Andrew R.,
PageBelknap Zachary S.,
Owczarczyk Zbyslaw,
Long Hai,
Seifert Soenke,
Maupin Christopher Mark,
Yandrasits Michael A.,
Yang Yuan,
Pivovar Bryan S.,
Herring Andrew M.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of polymer science part b: polymer physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.65
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 1099-0488
pISSN - 0887-6266
DOI - 10.1002/polb.24825
Subject(s) - alkyl , side chain , polymer chemistry , polymer , electrochemistry , methylene , chemistry , membrane , ionic conductivity , imide , organic chemistry , electrode , electrolyte , biochemistry
Three different perfluorinated type polymers as anion exchange membranes for electrochemical applications were studied. They have a sulfonamide linkage to a spacer methylene chain attached to a tri‐methyl ammonium cation, specifically using a three carbon spacer chain (PFAEM_H_C3), and methylated imide polymers with three (PFAEM_CH3_C3) and six carbon spacer chain (PFAEM_CH3_C6). There are significant number of zwitterionic side chains in the PFAEM_H_C3 polymer and very few in the PFAEM_CH3_C3 or the PFAEM_CH3_C6 polymer. They have similar halide conductivity, but the PFAEM_CH3_C6 showed highest OH − conductivity, 122 mS cm −1 at 80 °C and 95% RH. The larger spacer chain polymer, PFAEM_CH3_C6 has a higher water uptake value (λ = 9) compared to PFAEM_CH3_C3(λ = 7) at 60 °C and 95% RH in the Cl − form. Therefore, it has a larger domain spacing of 4.9 nm versus 4.1 nm from small angle X‐ray scattering data. The polymer was characterized by FTIR and DFT was used to fully assign the spectra. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part B: Polym. Phys. 2019 , 57 , 700–712