Sulfonated poly(ether imide)s with fluorenyl and trifluoromethyl groups: Application in microbial fuel cell (MFC)

By Anaparthi Ganesh Kumar and Debaditya Bera and Susanta Banerjee and Ramya Veerubhotla and Debabrata Das
Published in European Polymer Journal NULL 2016

Abstract

A series of fluorenyl and trifluoromethyl groups containing co-poly(ether imide)s (S-co-PIs) have been prepared from a new diamine monomer; 9,9-bis(3-methoxy-4-(4-amino(3-trifluoro-methyl)biphenoxy)phenyl)-9H-fluorene (APHPF). The polymers were prepared by the polycondensation reaction of 1,4,5,8-naphthalenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (NTDA) with two different diamines; \APHPF\ and 4,4?-diaminostilbene-2,2?-disulfonicacid (DSDSA) as a co-monomer. The monomer and polymers were well characterized by 1H \NMR\ and ATR-FTIR spectroscopies. The co-polymers were soluble in various organic solvents and membranes were prepared from solution cast route. The S-co-PIs showed high thermal and mechanical stability. \TEM\ and \AFM\ results supports the formation of phase separated morphology with well separated ionic-clusters. All these S-co-PIs displayed reasonably high proton conductivity. One of the copolymers (DAN-80; \IECw\ ?2.27 meq g?1) exhibited a proton conductivity as high as 149 mS cm?1 which was comparable to that of Nafion

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