Sulfonated poly (arylene ether sulfone)-graft-sulfonated poly (vinyl alcohol) proton exchange membranes: Improved proton selectivity

Abstract

Aldehyde terminated sulfonated poly (arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES-CHO) is prepared by a series of nucleophilic substitution reaction based on SPAES in this paper. Novel SPAES-graft-SPVA (SPAES-g-SPVA) membranes are fabricated by acetal reaction between SPAES-CHO and different amounts of sulfonated poly (vinyl alcohol) (SPVA). The 1H-NMR and FTIR indicate the successful preparation of SPAES-CHO and SPAES-g-SPVA membranes. With the introduction of SPVA, the SPAES-g-SPVA membranes have much lower methanol permeability than pure SPAES membrane and Nafion117 membrane. The methanol permeability coefficients of the SPAES-g-SPVA membranes decrease from 3.41 × 10−7 cm2 s−1 to 1.67 × 10−7 cm2 s−1 with the increase of SPVA content. And the proton conductivity of all the membranes is higher than 15 mS cm−1 at 25°C. Moreover, SPAES-g-SPVA membranes exhibit high proton selectivity. Especially, SPAES-g-SPVA-30% membrane has the highest proton selectivity, which is nearly five times higher than Nafion117.