High temperature proton exchange membranes with enhanced proton conductivities at low humidity and high temperature based on polymer blends and block copolymers of poly(1,3-cyclohexadiene) and poly(ethylene glycol)

Shawn Deng, Mohammad K. Hassan, Amol Nalawade, Kelly A. Perry, Karren L. More, Kenneth A. Mauritz, Marshall T. McDonnell, David J. Keffer, Jimmy W. Mays

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Hot (at 120 °C) and dry (20% relative humidity) operating conditions benefit fuel cell designs based on proton exchange membranes (PEMs) and hydrogen due to simplified system design and increasing tolerance to fuel impurities. Presented are preparation, partial characterization, and multi-scale modeling of such PEMs based on cross-linked, sulfonated poly(1,3-cyclohexadiene) (xsPCHD) blends and block copolymers with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG). These low cost materials have proton conductivities 18 times that of current industry standard Nafion at hot, dry operating conditions. Among the membranes studied, the blend xsPCHD-PEG PEM displayed the highest proton conductivity, which exhibits a morphology with higher connectivity of the hydrophilic domain throughout the membrane. Simulation and modeling provide a molecular level understanding of distribution of PEG within this hydrophilic domain and its relation to proton conductivities. This study demonstrates enhancement of proton conductivity at high temperature and low relative humidity by incorporation of PEG and optimized sulfonation conditions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)208-217
Number of pages10
JournalPolymer
Volume77
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 23 2015

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of this research by the U. S. Department of Energy, EERE Program , under Grants # DE-FG36-06GO16037 and DE-FG36-08GO88106 , by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Basic Energy Sciences Program under Grants # DE-FG02-05ER15723 , and by the National Science Foundation under Grant # DGE-0801470 . A portion of the work at the University of Tennessee was supported by the U. S. National Science Foundation (NSF EPS-1004083 , TN Score Thrust 2). Computational work used resources of the National Institute for Computational Sciences (NICS) supported by NSF under agreement number: OCI 07-11134.5 . Microscopy research conducted as part of a user proposal at Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), which is an Office of Science User Facility.

Keywords

  • Poly(1,3-cyclohexadiene)
  • Poly(ethylene glycol)
  • Proton exchange membrane

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