Recent progress in PEM fuel cell performance improvement

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2002
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 138 KB
• Volume: 2002
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1464-2859
• DOI: 10.1016/s1464-2859(02)08033-1

✦ Synopsis

Trends Sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) copolymers for PEMs

Here novel biphenol-based wholly aromatic poly(arylene ether sulfone)s containing up to two pendant sulfonate groups per repeat unit were prepared by direct aromatic nucleophilic substitution polycondensation of disodium 3,3'disulfonate-4,4'-dichlorodiphenylsulfone, 4,4'dichlorodiphenylsulfone and 4,4'-biphenol.

Copolymerization proceeded to high molecular weight in N-methyl-2-pyrrolidinone at 190°C. Tough membranes were successfully cast using N,N-dimethylactamide. An increase in sulfonate groups in the copolymer resulted in increased glass transition temperature, and enhanced membrane hydrophilicity and intrinsic viscosity. The new copolymers are candidates as new polymeric electrolyte materials for PEMFCs.