Novel Hydroxide-Conducting Polyelectrolyte Composed of an Poly(arylene ether sulfone) Containing Pendant Quaternary Guanidinium Groups for Alkaline Fuel Cell Applications

Poly(arylene ether sulfone)s were functionalized with quaternary guanidinium groups in order to investigate their properties as novel polymeric hydroxide exchange membrane materials. The quaternized polymers were synthesized via chloromethylation of poly(arylene ether sulfone)s, followed by reactions with pentamethylguanidine. The resulting quaternized polymers PSGCI-x (where x represents the number of the quaternary guanidinium groups/repeat units) presented an elevated molecular weight and exhibited an outstanding solubility in polar aprotic solvents. Consequently flexible and tough membranes of PSGCI-x with varying ionic content could be prepared by casting from the DMSO solution. Novel anion exchange membranes, PSGOH-x, were obtained by an anion exchange of PSGCI-x with I M NaOH at room temperature. The membranes displayed a high ionic conductivity and an excellent chemical stability. The obtained alkaline anion exchange membranes (A EMs) showed conductivities almost above 10(-2) S cm(-1) at room temperature; the hydroxide conductivity of PSGOH-1.4 was for instance found to be 6.7 x 10(-2) S cm(-1).