Issue 1, 2017

Highly conductive and durable poly(arylene ether sulfone) anion exchange membrane with end-group cross-linking

Abstract

Here, we demonstrate the improved electrochemical performance and stability of end-group cross-linked anion exchange membranes (AEM) for the first time via the introduction of imidazolium groups in poly(arylene ether sulfone) (Imd-PAES). A novel feature of the cross-linking reaction is that basic additives are not required to prevent gelation with the cationic functional groups. In this work, the sodium salt of 3-hydroxyphenylacetylene acted directly as the end-group cross-linker, and it was cross-linked by thermal treatment at 180 °C. The gel fraction and hydroxide conductivity of the cross-linked membranes (XE-Imds) depended on the cross-linking temperature and time. The prepared XE-Imd70 (70 refers to the degree of functionalization) membranes with an ion exchange capacity (IEC) of 2.2 meq g−1 achieved a high hydroxide conductivity (107 mS cm−1). This material also showed good single cell performance (XE-Imd70: 202 mA cm−2 at 0.6 V and a maximum power density of 196.1 mW cm−2) at 80 °C, 100% relative humidity (RH), and improved durability and alkaline stability. The excellent hydroxide conductivity and electrochemical performance of XE-Imd70 was due to the fact that the ion cluster size of XE-Imd membranes was larger (12.1–14 nm) than that of E-Imd (5.5–8.14 nm), indicating that XE-Imd membranes have a closely associated ion-clustered morphology, which was confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) measurements.

Graphical abstract: Highly conductive and durable poly(arylene ether sulfone) anion exchange membrane with end-group cross-linking

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
20 Oct 2016
Accepted
02 Dec 2016
First published
02 Dec 2016

Energy Environ. Sci., 2017,10, 275-285

Highly conductive and durable poly(arylene ether sulfone) anion exchange membrane with end-group cross-linking

K. H. Lee, D. H. Cho, Y. M. Kim, S. J. Moon, J. G. Seong, D. W. Shin, J. Sohn, J. F. Kim and Y. M. Lee, Energy Environ. Sci., 2017, 10, 275 DOI: 10.1039/C6EE03079C

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