Preparation and characterization of crosslinked cellulose/sulfosuccinic acid membranes as proton conducting electrolytes

Abstract

A series of crosslinked polymer electrolyte membranes were prepared by blending cellulose and sulfosuccinic acid (SA) for fuel cell applications. The crosslinking reaction of membranes occurred via the esterification between -OH of cellulose and -COOH of SA, as confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy. Both the ion exchange capacity and the proton conductivity increased in proportion to the increase of SA concentrations due to the increasing portion of charged groups in the membrane. In contrast, the water uptake linearly increased up to 25 wt.% of SA concentration, above which it decreased abruptly. The maximum behavior of water uptake may be a result of competitive effect between the increasing number of ionic sites and the increasing degree of crosslinking with the SA concentrations. Wide angle X-ray scattering also showed that the crystalline structures of cellulose disappeared upon the introduction of SA. The mechanical properties of cellulose/SA membranes, i.e., tensile strength at break and Young's modulus, showed a maximum at 15 wt.% of SA, as revealed by universal testing machine. These membranes exhibited good thermal stability up to 250°C, as revealed by thermal gravimetric analysis.

“Pillaring Effects” in Cross-Linked Cellulose Biopolymers: A Study of Structure and Properties

“…Previous studies of cross-linked cellulose polymers have been reported in the open literature [19][20][21], but there is a limited understanding of how cross-linking (pillaring) affects the physicochemical properties of such systems. To investigate the role of pillaring effects in cellulose, a multi-instrumental approach was used to evaluate the relationship between structure and physicochemical properties of cross-linked cellulose.…”

“…The textural properties of cellulose and its modified forms are anticipated to have variable thermodynamics and kinetics of hydration due to the role of pillaring effects on the biopolymer structure and properties. In an effort to obtain a greater understanding of the role of pillaring effects for cross-linked materials, a detailed structural characterization is needed since sparse studies exist for cellulose materials [19][20][21].…”

Ionomers From Kraft Lignin for Renewable Energy Applications

“…Lignin has multiple structural features and characteristics, which makes it an ideal precursor of ionomer. Of the plant cell wall polymers, cellulose has been widely explored to make green electron (Zhu et al, 2016 ) or ion-conducting materials (Seo et al, 2009 ; Bayer et al, 2016 ; Zhu et al, 2016 ; Vilela et al, 2019 ). However, lignin has been underutilized as an ionomer and majorly used to synthesize porous carbon (graphene, carbon fiber) (Kontturi, 1988 ; Naseem et al, 2016 ) or charge storage materials (Kontturi, 1988 ) [requiring oxidation of phenol groups of lignin to quinone (Furman and Lonsky, 1988 ; Milczarek and Inganas, 2012 ; Milczarek and Nowicki, 2013 ; Thakur et al, 2014 ; Zhu et al, 2016 ) or mixing with quinone (Furman and Lonsky, 1988 )].…”

Electromechanical properties study of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride/cellulosic gel blended with polydiphenylamine

“…The absorption band at 897 cm −1 is assigned as C O C stretching at the ␤-(1→4)-glycosidic linkage in the cellulose [46]. The absorption band at 3387 cm −1 is associated with the interaction between the bound water molecules and the cellulosic hydroxyl group [47], it is superimposed on the characteristic peak of N H stretching mode of the secondary amine of PDPA. The absorption peak at 3387 cm −1 is enhanced with increasing PDPA doping level, when it is blended with CelGel at 2.50%v/v at a 10:1 doping level.…”