Hydroxide conducting BAB triblock copolymers tailored for durable high-performance anion exchange membranes
Allushi, Andrit LU ; Mansouri Bakvand, Pegah LU ; Gong, Haiyue LU and Jannasch, Patric LU
(2023)
In Materials Advances
4(17).
p.3733-3745
- Abstract
- Well-designed block copolymers with a controlled co-continuous microphase morphology can be applied as efficient anion exchange membranes (AEMs) for fuel cells and water electrolyzers. In the present work, we have prepared and studied a series of BAB triblock copolymers consisting of a central cationic polyfluorene A block with flanking hydrophobic polystyrene B blocks, where the fluorene units of the A block carried double pairs of piperidinium cations via flexible hexyl spacer chains. First, a polyfluorene tethered with bromohexyl chains was prepared by superacid-mediated polyhydroxyalkylation, and then modified to produce a bi-directional macroinitiator for atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Next, ATRP of styrene was carried... (More)
- Well-designed block copolymers with a controlled co-continuous microphase morphology can be applied as efficient anion exchange membranes (AEMs) for fuel cells and water electrolyzers. In the present work, we have prepared and studied a series of BAB triblock copolymers consisting of a central cationic polyfluorene A block with flanking hydrophobic polystyrene B blocks, where the fluorene units of the A block carried double pairs of piperidinium cations via flexible hexyl spacer chains. First, a polyfluorene tethered with bromohexyl chains was prepared by superacid-mediated polyhydroxyalkylation, and then modified to produce a bi-directional macroinitiator for atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Next, ATRP of styrene was carried out to form BAB triblock copolymers with different lengths of the B blocks. Finally, the polyfluorene block was densely functionalized with piperidinium cations by Menshutkin reactions. Small angle X-ray scattering of block copolymer AEMs indicated the presence of both block copolymer phase domains (d~15 nm) and ionic clusters (d~6 nm). Atomic force microscopy showed clearly phase-separated morphologies with seemingly well-connected hydrophilic nanophase domains for ion transport. The AEMs reached hydroxide conductivities up to 161 mS cm-1 at 80 ºC. Moreover, the AEMs decomposed only above 250 °C and possessed excellent alkaline stability with no degradation detected by 1H NMR analysis after storage in 2 M aq. NaOH, at 90 °C during 672 h. Notably, the current block copolymer AEMs showed higher alkaline stability and hydroxide conductivity compared to AEMs based on corresponding statistical copolymers. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/efb2bc60-eac1-40be-b4e8-30e681f33a83
- author
- Allushi, Andrit
LU
; Mansouri Bakvand, Pegah
LU
; Gong, Haiyue
LU
and Jannasch, Patric
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2023
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- in
- Materials Advances
- volume
- 4
- issue
- 17
- pages
- 13 pages
- publisher
- Royal Society of Chemistry
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85167503558
- ISSN
- 2633-5409
- DOI
- 10.1039/D3MA00207A
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- efb2bc60-eac1-40be-b4e8-30e681f33a83
- date added to LUP
- 2023-04-20 09:23:18
- date last changed
- 2023-11-07 10:20:36
@article{efb2bc60-eac1-40be-b4e8-30e681f33a83,
abstract = {{Well-designed block copolymers with a controlled co-continuous microphase morphology can be applied as efficient anion exchange membranes (AEMs) for fuel cells and water electrolyzers. In the present work, we have prepared and studied a series of BAB triblock copolymers consisting of a central cationic polyfluorene A block with flanking hydrophobic polystyrene B blocks, where the fluorene units of the A block carried double pairs of piperidinium cations via flexible hexyl spacer chains. First, a polyfluorene tethered with bromohexyl chains was prepared by superacid-mediated polyhydroxyalkylation, and then modified to produce a bi-directional macroinitiator for atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP). Next, ATRP of styrene was carried out to form BAB triblock copolymers with different lengths of the B blocks. Finally, the polyfluorene block was densely functionalized with piperidinium cations by Menshutkin reactions. Small angle X-ray scattering of block copolymer AEMs indicated the presence of both block copolymer phase domains (<i>d</i>~15 nm) and ionic clusters (<i>d</i>~6 nm). Atomic force microscopy showed clearly phase-separated morphologies with seemingly well-connected hydrophilic nanophase domains for ion transport. The AEMs reached hydroxide conductivities up to 161 mS cm<sup>-1</sup> at 80 ºC. Moreover, the AEMs decomposed only above 250 °C and possessed excellent alkaline stability with no degradation detected by <sup>1</sup>H NMR analysis after storage in 2 M aq. NaOH, at 90 °C during 672 h. Notably, the current block copolymer AEMs showed higher alkaline stability and hydroxide conductivity compared to AEMs based on corresponding statistical copolymers.}},
author = {{Allushi, Andrit and Mansouri Bakvand, Pegah and Gong, Haiyue and Jannasch, Patric}},
issn = {{2633-5409}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{17}},
pages = {{3733--3745}},
publisher = {{Royal Society of Chemistry}},
series = {{Materials Advances}},
title = {{Hydroxide conducting BAB triblock copolymers tailored for durable high-performance anion exchange membranes}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/D3MA00207A}},
doi = {{10.1039/D3MA00207A}},
volume = {{4}},
year = {{2023}},
}