Anh Le Mong
Sungkyunkwan University,
Title: AAEM- Alkaline anion exchange membrane from poly(arylene ether ketone)-g-polyimidazolium copolymer for enhanced hydroxide ion conductivity and thermal, mechanical, and hydrolytic stability
Biography
Biography: Anh Le Mong
Abstract
A series of alkaline anion exchange membranes (AAEMs) are synthesized from poly(arylene ether ketone)-poly(vinyl-1-butylimidazolium) graft copolymers (PAEK-g-[PBVIm-OH]) with different [PBVIm-OH] cationic chain lengths. The chemical structure of the synthesized polymers is confirmed by proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis. Several essential properties of AAEMs such as water uptake, hydroxide ion conductivity, and thermal, mechanical and dimensional stability for fuel cell applications are investigated and correlated to the ion cluster dimension examined by small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS). The PAEK-g-[PBVIm-OH]-based AAEMs show excellent hydroxide ion conductivity as well as thermal, mechanical, and dimensional stability. The hydroxide ion conductivity increases with increasing PBVIm-OH graft chain length. The AAEM membrane with the longest PBVIm-OH chain length (MW of ~ 7000 g mol-1) exhibits the highest hydroxide conductivity of 0.00878 S cm-1 at 40 oC and the highest elongation of 206.7% in the hydrate state. The membrane electrode assembly fabricated from this membrane shows the highest power density of 22 mW cm-2 at a current density of 55 mA cm-2, which is very promising for fuel cell applications