Preparation and Characterization of Proton Exchange Membrane Based on Sulfonated Poly(arylene ether sulfone)/Polyacrylonitrile (SPAES/PAN)

Sulfonated poly (arylene ether sulfone) s (SPAESs) exhibit good proton conductivity, thermal and mechanical properties, could act as candidates of proton exchange membranes for fuel cells. At the same time, the poor oxidative stability and excessive swelling ratio of SPAESs bring limitations for its further use. In this article, PAN was employed to mix with SPAES, and then SPAES/PAN blend membranes were prepared from the blend solution by casting. The water uptake, dimensional and oxidative stability, proton conductivity were measured with respect to the addition content of PAN, the phase morphology of the resultant SPAES/PAN were also observed by SEM. The results explained that the corporation of PAN into SPAES could reduce the water uptake and improve the oxidative stability of the obtained membranes compared with the pristine SPAES membrane. That the PAN phase distributed as separated domains in SPAES matrix was found, the interaction between SPAES and PAN may be present, which is responsible for the improvement of dimensional and oxidative stability. Although the proton conductivity of the blend membranes became reduced with increase of PAN content in the SPAES/PAN blend, the conductivity of 0.0265S/cm at 30°C could still be reached, satisfying the requirement for proton exchange membrane Fuel Cell