Alleviating the Mechanical and Thermal Degradations of Highly Sulfonated Poly(Ether Ether Ketone) Blocks via Copolymerization with Hydrophobic Unit for Intermediate Humidity Fuel Cells

Abstract

In this contribution, sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) is inter-connected using a hydrophobic oligomer via poly-condensation reaction to produce SPEEK analogues as PEMs. Prior sulfonation is performed for SPEEK to avoid random sulfonation of multi-block copolymers that may destroy the mechanical toughness of polymer backbone. A greater local density of ionic moieties exist in SPEEK and good thermomechanical properties of hydrophobic unit offer an unique approach to promote the proton conductivity as well as thermomechanical stability of membrane, as verify from AC impedance and TGA. The morphological behavior and phase variation of membranes are explored using FE-SEM and AFM; the triblock (XYX) membranes exhibits a nano-phase separated morphology. Performance of PEFC integrated with blend and block copolymer membranes is determined at 60 °C under 60% RH. As a result, the triblock (XYX) membrane has a high power density than blend (2X1Y) membrane.