title: Ionic crosslinking of imidazolium functionalized poly(aryl ether ketone) by sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) for anion exchange membranes.
abstract: Two N3-substituted imidazoles 1,2-dimethylimidazole and 1-butyl-2-methylimidazole were chosen to functionalize poly(aryl ether ketone), respectively. The generated imidazolium cations could electrostatically react with sulfonate ions of the sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) forming the ionic crosslinking structure of the membranes. The changes in crosslinking degree and the alkyl chain-length on N3 site of the imidazoliums could highly affect the properties of the anion exchange membranes (AEMs). The AEMs functionalized by 1-butyl-2-methylimidazole exhibited superior properties compared to those functionalized by 1,2-dimethylimidazole according to the tolerance tests of the AEMs towards hot alkaline solutions. After exposed to 1M KOH at 80°C for 200h, the 1-butyl-2-methylimidazole modified AEMs maintained the ion exchange capacity of above 85%, the conductivity of about 70%, and the tensile stress at break of around 80%, respectively. The hydrophile-lipophile balance of the polymer membranes was calculated and proposed to better understand the correlation between structures and properties of the AEMs. The degradation of the imidazolium functional groups of the AEMs under the attack of hydroxide ions was evidenced by FT-IR analysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China.
authors.forename: Yixin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China.
authors.forename: Niya
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ye
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China.
authors.forename: Dengji
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China.
authors.forename: Jingshuai
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China. Electronic address: herh@mail.neu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ronghuan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: He
keywords: Anion exchange membrane; Imidazolium; Ionic crosslinking; Stability; Tensile stress