TY - JOUR
T1 - Hydrophobic Effect on Alkaline Stability of Graft Chains in Ammonium-type Anion Exchange Membranes Prepared by Radiation-Induced Graft Polymerization
AU - Hamada, Takashi
AU - Zhao, Yue
AU - Yoshimura, Kimio
AU - Radulescu, Aurel
AU - Ohwada, Kenji
AU - Maekawa, Yasunari
N1 - Funding Information:
. This study was supported partially by the Advanced Low Carbon Technology Research and Development Program (ALCA) from the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and Grant‐in‐Aid for Scientific Research (A) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) (KAKENHI Grant Number: 18H03850). The authors wish to thank Enago for the English language review
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Wiley-VCH GmbH
PY - 2021/9/7
Y1 - 2021/9/7
N2 - Vinylbenzyltrimethylammonium hydroxide (VBA) and styrene (St) cografted poly(ethylene-co-tetrafluoroethylene) anion exchange membranes (VBA/St-AEM) were prepared by the radiation-induced graft polymerization of chloromethylstyrene and St and sequential quaternization and anion exchange reactions. Increasing the St content in the grafts to 63 % resulted in a gradual 21 % and 34 % decrease in the conductivity and water uptake, respectively, compared to those in the VBA-homo-grafted AEM. AEMs with a higher St content (81 %) showed a 9 % and 18 % higher conductivity and water uptake, respectively. Small-angle neutron scattering showed that the sudden growth of “water puddles” consisting of water-rich nano-domains dispersed randomly in phase-separated hydrophilic ion channels enhanced the conductivity and water uptake. In the alkaline durability test of VBA/St-AEM in 1 M potassium hydroxide at 80 °C for 720 h, the loss of the conductivity was suppressed from 43 % to 8 %, when the St contents in the grafts were increased from 0 % to 63 %.
AB - Vinylbenzyltrimethylammonium hydroxide (VBA) and styrene (St) cografted poly(ethylene-co-tetrafluoroethylene) anion exchange membranes (VBA/St-AEM) were prepared by the radiation-induced graft polymerization of chloromethylstyrene and St and sequential quaternization and anion exchange reactions. Increasing the St content in the grafts to 63 % resulted in a gradual 21 % and 34 % decrease in the conductivity and water uptake, respectively, compared to those in the VBA-homo-grafted AEM. AEMs with a higher St content (81 %) showed a 9 % and 18 % higher conductivity and water uptake, respectively. Small-angle neutron scattering showed that the sudden growth of “water puddles” consisting of water-rich nano-domains dispersed randomly in phase-separated hydrophilic ion channels enhanced the conductivity and water uptake. In the alkaline durability test of VBA/St-AEM in 1 M potassium hydroxide at 80 °C for 720 h, the loss of the conductivity was suppressed from 43 % to 8 %, when the St contents in the grafts were increased from 0 % to 63 %.
KW - Alkaline durability
KW - Anion-conducting electrolyte membrane
KW - Poly(ethylene-co-tetrafluoroethylene)
KW - Radiation-induced graft polymerization
KW - Small-angle neutron scattering
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U2 - 10.1002/slct.202102045
DO - 10.1002/slct.202102045
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85114303769
SN - 2365-6549
VL - 6
SP - 8879
EP - 8888
JO - ChemistrySelect
JF - ChemistrySelect
IS - 33
ER -