Electrospun Poly(Styrene-Co-Vinylbenzyl Chloride-Co-Acrylonitrile) Nanofiber Mat as an Anion Exchange Membrane for Fuel Cell Applications

Dongho Kang; Ji Su Lee; Hyon Hee Yoon; Chinta Mani Sharma; Gautam Das; Young Soo Yoon

doi:10.3390/polym14163236

Electrospun Poly(Styrene-Co-Vinylbenzyl Chloride-Co-Acrylonitrile) Nanofiber Mat as an Anion Exchange Membrane for Fuel Cell Applications

Polymers (Basel). 2022 Aug 9;14(16):3236. doi: 10.3390/polym14163236.

Authors

Dongho Kang¹, Ji Su Lee¹, Hyon Hee Yoon¹, Chinta Mani Sharma², Gautam Das³, Young Soo Yoon⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Gachon University, Seongnam 461-701, Korea.
² Department of Chemistry, Biswanath College, Biwanath Charialli 784176, India.
³ Department of Polymer Science and Engineering, School of Applied Science, Kyungpook National University, Daegu 41566, Korea.
⁴ Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Gachon University, Seongnam 461-701, Korea.

Abstract

A nanofiber mat of styrene-co-vinylbenzyl chloride-co-acrylonitrile copolymer as an anion exchange membrane (AEM) was synthesized via the electrospinning of organic reaction mixtures. The synthesized membranes were characterized using FT-IR spectroscopy for structural analysis. The AEM demonstrated a high ionic conductivity mainly due to the phase segregation in the membrane structure, as analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The membrane properties such as water uptake, swelling ratio, and ion exchange capacity, as well as ionic conductivity, varied with the chemical composition. With the molar ratio of styrene, vinylbenzyl chloride, and acrylonitrile at 3:5:2, the highest ionic conductivity of 0.214 S cm^-1 at 80 °C was observed. Additionally, the AEM retained 94% of original conductivity after 72 h of soaking in 1 M KOH solution.

Keywords: anion exchange membrane; chloride-co-acrylonitrile; electrospinning; ion conductivity; nanofiber mat; styrene-co-vinylbenzyl.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (No. NRF-2019M2D1A1079208). Moreover, this work has also been supported by National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (No. NRF-2021M2D2A2076384).