Effects of Block Length and Membrane Processing Conditions on the Morphology and Properties of Perfluorosulfonated Poly(arylene ether sulfone) Multiblock Copolymer Membranes for PEMFC

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Luca Assumma ; Huu-Dat Nguyen ; Cristina Iojoiu ; Sandrine Lyonnard ; R茅gis Mercier ; Eliane Espuche
• 刊名：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
• 出版年：2015
• 出版时间：July 1, 2015
• 年：2015
• 卷：7
• 期：25
• 页码：13808-13820
• 全文大小：600K
• ISSN：1944-8252

文摘

Perfluorosulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) multiblock copolymers have been shown to be promising as proton exchange membranes. The commonly used approach for preparation of the membrane is solvent casting; the properties of the resulting membranes are very dependent on the membrane processing conditions. In this paper, we study the effects of block length, selectivity of the solvent, and thermal treatment on the membrane properties such as morphology, water uptake, and ionic conductivity. DiMethylSulfOxide (DMSO), and DiMethylAcetamide (DMAc) were selected as casting solvents based on the Flory鈥揌uggins parameter calculated by inversion gas chromatography (IGC). It was found that the solvent selectivity has a mild impact on the mean size of the ionic domains and the expansion upon swelling, while it dramatically affects the supramolecular ordering of the blocks. The membranes cast from DMSO exhibit more interconnected ionic clusters yielding higher conductivities and water uptake as compared to membranes cast from DMAc. A 10-fold increase in proton conductivity was achieved after thermal annealing of membranes at 150 掳C, and the ionomers with longer block lengths show conductivities similar to Nafion at 80 掳C and low relative humidity (30%).