Open Access

ARTICLE

Sulfonated Poly (Ether Ether Ketone) and its Blended Nanocomposite for Proton Conducting Membranes

ABDUL KALAM AZAD¹, ARVIND GUPTA³, LAKSHMI UNNIKRISHNAN^2,3,*, SMITA MOHANTY³， SANJAY KUMAR NAYAK^2,3

1 Department of Chemical and Process Engineering Technology, Jubail Industrial College, Jubail Industrial City 31961, Saudi Arabia.
2 CIPET, School for Advanced Research in Polymers (SARP)-APDDRL, Hi Tech Defence and Aerospace Park, Bengaluru 562149, India.
3 CIPET, School for Advanced Research in Polymers (SARP) - LARPM, B/25, CNI Complex, Patia, Bhubaneswar 751 024, India.

* Corresponding Author: e-mail:

Journal of Polymer Materials 2021, 38(1-2), 121-136. https://doi.org/10.32381/JPM.2021.38.1-2.10

Abstract

Proton conducting hydrophilic channels were created successfully in poly (ether ether ketone) (PEEK) by means of step by step modification followed by the optimization of sulfonation process (SPEEK70, DS=68.57%). Although highly sulfonated PEEK has excellent proton conductivity, it lacks in mechanical stability due to low swelling degree. Therefore, a potential method has been proposed in this work by integrating poly (sulfone) and nanosilica (SiO₂ ) into SPEEK matrix. SPEEK 70 (S) was utilized to prepare blended nanocomposite membranes for further enhancement of hydrophilic channels. The blended nanocomposite membranes are, SPEEK/SiO₂ as SNS, SPEEK blended with poly (sulfone) as SP, SPEEK blended with sulfonated poly (sulfone) as SSP and SPEEK blended with sulfonated poly (sulfone)/ (SiO₂ ) as SSPNS. All the prepared membranes were characterized and its performance was discussed in detail to identify the appropriate membrane for the better replacement of Nafion. Expected intermolecular interaction and its obstruction of free hydrophilic channels were confirmed with the gradual increase in proton conductivity from 0.0165 to 0.2557mS/cm.

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Keywords

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