High-Performance Semicrystalline Poly(ether ketone)-Based Proton Exchange Membrane

Sinan Feng; Jinhui Pang; Xingwen Yu; Guibin Wang; Arumugam Manthiram

doi:10.1021/acsami.7b03720

High-Performance Semicrystalline Poly(ether ketone)-Based Proton Exchange Membrane

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Jul 26;9(29):24527-24537. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b03720. Epub 2017 Jul 17.

Authors

Sinan Feng^{1

2}, Jinhui Pang², Xingwen Yu¹, Guibin Wang², Arumugam Manthiram¹

Affiliations

¹ Materials Science & Engineering Program and Texas Materials Institute, The University of Texas at Austin , Austin, Texas 78712, United States.
² Key Laboratory of Super Engineering Plastic of Ministry of Education, Jilin University , Qianjin Street 2699, Changchun 130012, P. R. China.

PMID: 28682586
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b03720

Abstract

A novel semicrystalline poly(ether ketone) (PEK)-based proton exchange membrane (semi-SPEK-x) has been developed. Through a one-step sulfonation and hydrolysis, a poly(ether ketimine) precursor transforms into PEK and ion-conducting groups are introduced. With an ion-exchange capacity ranging from 1.49 to 2.00 mequiv g^-1, the semi-SPEK-x polymers exhibit a semicrystalline feature in both dry and hydrated states. Owing to the semicrystalline domains inside the polymer, the obtained membrane exhibits low water uptake and low volume swelling ratio. More importantly, the semicrystalline structure lowers methanol permeability and, consequently, improves the overall performances of direct methanol fuel cells.

Keywords: fuel cell; low methanol permeability; poly(ether ketone); proton exchange membrane; semicrystalline polymers.