title: Hydrocarbon-Based Polymer Electrolyte Membranes: Importance of Morphology on Ion Transport and Membrane Stability.
abstract: A fundamental understanding of polymer microstructure is important in order to design novel polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) with excellent electrochemical performance and stabilities. Hydrocarbon-based polymers have distinct microstructure according to their chemical structure. The ionic clusters and/or channels play a critical role in PEMs, affecting ion conductivity and water transport, especially at medium temperature and low relative humidity (RH). In addition, physical properties such as water uptake and dimensional swelling behavior depend strongly on polymer morphology. Over the past few decades, much research has focused on the synthetic development and microstructural characterization of hydrocarbon-based PEM materials. Furthermore, blends, composites, pressing, shear field, electrical field, surface modification, and cross-linking have also been shown to be effective approaches to obtain/maintain well-defined PEM microstructure. This review summarizes recent work on developments in advanced PEMs with various chemical structures and architecture and the resulting polymer microstructures and morphologies that arise for potential application in fuel cell, lithium ion battery, redox flow battery, actuators, and electrodialysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Energy Engineering, College of Engineering, Hanyang University , Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea.|Fuel Cell Laboratory, Korea Institute of Energy Research , Daejeon 34129, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Dong Won
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.affiliation: Department of Energy Engineering, College of Engineering, Hanyang University , Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea.|State Key Laboratory of Engines, Tianjin University , Tianjin 300072, China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering (Tianjin) , Tianjin 300072, China.
authors.forename: Michael D
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2619-6809
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Guiver
authors.affiliation: Department of Energy Engineering, College of Engineering, Hanyang University , Seoul 04763, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Young Moo
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5047-3143
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Lee