Effect of Humidity Content and Morphology on the Properties of Proton Exchange Membrane from Sulfonated Poly (arylene ether sulfone) s Containing Fluorophenyl Pendant Groups

The characters of proton exchange membranes from sulfonated poly( aryl ether sulfone) s( SPAESs) containing fluorophenyl pendant groups are studied in this paper.Both the water uptake and the water content parameter( λ) of all SPAES membranes increase almost linearly with sulfonation degree( SD)and temperature.After being equilibrated in deionized water,the dimensional change in plane is much less affected by temperature than that in vertical direction.Under all the humidity condition the proton conductivities of these SPAES membranes increase with SD and temperature.A maximus proton conductivity of 0.38 S/cm is attained at 90 ℃ for SPAES-5 with a SD of 99.3% when the membrane is fully hydrated,higher than that of Nafion 115.But the proton conductivities of SPAES membranes decrease dramatically with the relative humidity and all of them are lower and more affected by relative humidity than that of Nafion 115 at relative humidity lower than 100%,which may be due to the cumulative effects of narrower channels with spherical clusters for proton migration,more rigid chains and larger tortuosity of SPAESs.