Side Chain Flexibility in Perfluorosulfonic Acid Ionomers: An ab Initio Study

Side chain flexibility in perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) ionomers has been explored through ab initio electronic structure calculations. Three different PFSA side chain fragments were considered with a CF3CFCF3 backbone representation: Nafion (-OCF2CF(CF3)O(CF2)(2)SO3H), Aquivion or the short side chain (SSC) (-O(CF2)(2)SO3H), and the 3M PFSA (-O(CF2)(4)SO3H). Rotational potential energy surfaces for each bond along the length of the side chains were obtained using density functional theory with the B3LYP and the dispersion-corrected B97D functionals with and without the inclusion of a solvation model. Solvent effects were found to have minimal effect on bond rotations close to the tetrafluoroethylene backbone but had greater impact near the terminal sulfonic acid group. The carbon-sulfur bond was found to be the most flexible portion of the side chain in each of the fragments which was further enhanced with the inclusion of the solvent. Complete rotation about either the O-CF2 or CF-O bond in the Nafion side chain resulted in fairly high energetic barriers, but significant portions of these rotational surfaces had energetic penalties less than 1.5 kcal/mol indicating substantial conformational freedom. Fully extended and folded conformations of the Nafion side chain exhibit considerable contraction in side chain end-to-end distance and were observed to be nearly isoenergetic using B3LYP, but the folded structures with the ether oxygen atoms in gauche conformations were similar to 1.5 kcal/mol lower in energy using B97D. Below the second ether linkage of the Nafion side chain, the rotational potential energy profiles were identical to that determined for the SSC side chain. The 3M side chain was generally found to be the most rigid with barriers for complete rotation about the central carbon-carbon bonds of approximately 7 kcal/mol. These results indicate that minor differences in side chain length and chemistry may have a pronounced effect on the rotational potential energy surfaces, particularly those involving rotation about different carbon-carbon bonds with distinctly different character.