Structural and conformational properties of polybenzimidazoles in melt and phosphoric acid solution: a polyelectrolyte membrane for fuel cells

Abstract

Poly[2,2′-(p-phenylene)-5,5′-bibenzimidazole (PBI) and poly(2,5-benzimidazole) (ABPBI) doped with phosphoric acid (PA) are considered as potential polymer electrolyte membranes for high temperature fuel cells. Conformational and structural properties of polymer chains in the presence of PA govern the function of the membrane. Therefore, in this work, a single chain conformational analysis of ABPBI and PBI in melt as well as in PA was performed using classical molecular dynamics simulations. End-to-end distance and the radius of gyration reveal significant changes in the conformations of PBI and ABPBI in PA. The structural changes are analyzed locally segment-wise as well as globally in these polymers. The shape and nature of the curvature along the chain is found to be significantly different for ABPBI and PBI. The role of the solvent (PA) on the chain backbone structure is explored for PA doped ABPBI and PBI chains. The PA arrangement along the backbone confirms that benzimidazole density in the case of both of the polymers determines the PA absorbing capacity. The H-bonding interactions between various atoms of the polymer backbone and the atoms of the PA molecules are evaluated along the polymer chain which relates to the arrangement of PA along the backbone. The reasons for the varying number of H-bonds along ABPBI and PBI which in turn has a significant effect on the stiffness of the chains are investigated.