A bio-based benzoxazine surfactant is synthesized using amino acids as an amine source, and may have potential use in cosmetics and cleaning products.

Sulfonated titanium dioxide (STiO 2 ) was prepared by the reaction of TiO 2 with 1,3-propanesultone. Novel STiO 2 incorporated sulfonated poly(aryl ether sulfone) (SPAES) nanocomposite proton exchange membranes (PEMs) were made by solution casting. Fourier transform infrared, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and proton nuclear magnetic resonance indicated the successful preparation of STiO 2 and SPAES. The thermogravimetric analysis and oxidative stability testing results implied that SPAES/STiO 2 membranes had better stability than pristine SPAES membrane. Meanwhile, the scanning electron microscopy spectra exhibited that the introduction of sulfonated groups on the surface of TiO 2 significantly improved its dispersibility in SPAES matrix. More specifically, SPAES membrane incorporated with 2%STiO 2 exhibited higher proton conductivity (60 mS cm −1 ), lower methanol permeability (2.1 × 10 −7 cm 2 s −1 ) and better proton selectivity (28.0 × 10 4 S s cm −3 ) than that of pure SPAES and SPAES/1%TiO 2 membrane. The SPAES-1%STiO 2 membrane showed better performance in direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) test than SPAES and Nafion 117 due to the reduction of methanol crossover. From these results, it is evident that SPAES/STiO 2 nanocomposite PEMs have great potential for applications in DMFCs.

In this work, semiinterpenetrating polymer network (semi-IPN), consisting of sulfonated poly (arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES) and crosslinked vinyl imidazole grafted polysulfone (VMPSU), is prepared and characterized. FTIR, EDS, and solubility test indicate the successful preparation of amphoteric membranes. The semi-IPN amphoteric membranes exhibit better stability than pure SPAES membrane, as demonstrated by thermogravimetric analysis and ex situ immersion testing results. More importantly, it is shown that the amphoteric membrane can effectively hinder vanadium ion crossover through the membrane, which is attributed to the semi-IPN structure and Donnan exclusion. As expected, the amphoteric membrane containing 20% VMPSU exhibits the highest proton selectivity (6.86 × 10 4 S min cm −3), comparing to pristine SPAES (1.90 × 10 4 S min cm −3) as well as Nafion117 (1.31 × 10 4 S min cm −3).

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