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Side Chain Engineering of Sulfonated Poly(arylene ether)s for Proton Exchange Membranes

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Abstract

Proton conductivity of proton exchange membranes (PEMs) strongly relies on microscopic morphology, which can be modulated by engineering the distribution of ionic groups. Herein, poly(arylene ether)s with densely distributed allyl functionalities are polymerized from a tetra-allyl bisphenol A monomer. The subsequent thiol-ene addition with sodium 3-mercapto-1-propanesulfonate yields comb-shaped sulfonated fluorinated poly(arylene ether)s (SFPAEs) with ion exchange capacities (IECs) ranging from 1.29 mmol·g−1 to 1.78 mmol·g−1. These SFPAEs exhibit superior proton conductivity over the whole temperature range, which is attributed to the enhanced hydrophilic/hydrophobic phase separation as evidenced by small angle X-ray scattering characterizations. The SFPAE-4-40 with an IEC of 1.78 mmol·g−1 shows the largest proton conductivity of 93 mS·cm−1 at room temperature under fully hydrated condition, higher than that of Nafion 212. Furthermore, the vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) assembled with SFPAE-4-40 separator exhibits higher energy efficiency than the VRFB assembled with Nafion 212.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51873037 and 51503038).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, 350116, China

    Xiang Zhang, Xia-Lin Chen, Dong-Yang Chen & Yu-Ying Zheng

  2. PowerChina Railway Construction Co., Ltd, Beijing, 100037, China

    Zhi-Wen Li

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  1. Xiang Zhang
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Correspondence to Dong-Yang Chen or Yu-Ying Zheng.

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Zhang, X., Li, ZW., Chen, XL. et al. Side Chain Engineering of Sulfonated Poly(arylene ether)s for Proton Exchange Membranes. Chin J Polym Sci 38, 644–652 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10118-020-2371-4

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