A facile approach to prepare self-cross-linkable sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) membranes for direct methanol fuel cells

作者:Li, Hongtao; Zhang, Gang; Wu, Jing; Zhao, Chengji; Jia, Qiong; Lew, Christopher M.; Zhang, Liyuan; Zhang, Yang; Han, Miaomiao; Zhu, Jing; Shao, Ke; Ni, Jing; Na, Hui*
来源:Journal of Power Sources, 2010, 195(24): 8061-8066.
DOI:10.1016/j.jpowsour.2010.06.106

摘要

Sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) containing hydroxyl groups (SPEEK-OH) has been prepared for use as a proton exchange membrane (PEM) by reducing the carbonyl groups on the main chain of the polymers. With the goal of reducing water uptake and methanol permeability, a facile thermal-cross-linking process is used to obtain the cross-linked membranes. The properties of the cross-linked membranes with different cross-linked density are measured and compared with the pristine membrane. Notably, SPEEK-4 with the highest cross-linked density shows a water uptake of 39% and a methanol permeability of 2.52 x 10(-7) cm(2) s(-1), which are much lower than those of the pristine membrane (63.2% and 5.37 x 10(-7) cm(2) s(-1), respectively). These results indicate that this simple approach is very effective to prepare cross-linked proton exchange membranes for reducing water uptake and methanol permeability.