As a novel clean energy technology, hydroxide exchange membrane (HEM) fuel cells have demonstrated the capacity to produce high power density. Since HEM's ability to resist mechanical breach in the form of pinholes and tears limits the durability of fuel cells, the development of high-performance HEMs with good mechanical properties has become one of the important works. In this work, a soluble imidazolium chloride-functionalized poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK-ImCl) was successfully synthesized by Menshutkin reaction of chloromethylated PEEK and 1-methylimidazole. Then imidazolium hydroxide-functionalized PEEK (PEEK-ImOH) membranes were prepared by casting the PEEK-ImCl solutions and ion-exchanging with KOH. PEEK-ImOH membran shows excellent mechanical properties, including the highest tension strength (78 MPa) and the largest tension strain (168%) in the dry state among all HEMs reported. The authors thank the support of National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (Grant No. 21125628).

Imidazolium-functionalized poly(ether ether ketone) hydroxide exchange membranes with excellent mechanical properties

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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