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Crosslinked SPEEK membranes: Mechanical, thermal, and hydrothermal properties

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Abstract

The thermal and mechanical behavior, the water uptake (WU), and water diffusion coefficient of sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) membranes annealed at 180 °C for different times were explored by high-resolution thermogravimetric analysis, mechanical tensile tests, dynamic mechanical analysis, and WU measurements. The mechanical and thermal stability increased with the thermal treatment time, i.e., with the degree of crosslinking. The effect of residual casting solvent, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), on the WU within SPEEK was probed. In presence of residual DMSO, crosslinked SPEEK exhibited higher water sorption at low and medium relative humidity (RH), and lower water sorption at high RH. These membranes have properties well adapted to fuel cell applications.

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Acknowledgment

The EU-FP7 (FCH-JU) project “LoLiPEM—Long-life PEM-FCH&CHP systems at temperatures higher than 100 °C” (GA 245339) is gratefully acknowledged for cofunding this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Chimie Provence (UMR 6264), Centre St Jérôme, Aix-Marseille Univ - CNRS, 13397, Marseille, France

    Hongying Hou, Brunella Maranesi, Mustapha Khadhraoui & Philippe Knauth

  2. Dip. Scienze e Tecnologie Chimiche, Univ Roma Tor Vergata, 00133, Roma, Italy

    Brunella Maranesi, Riccardo Polini & Maria Luisa Di Vona

  3. Univ Sud Toulon-Var, MAPIEM (EA 3834), 83402, La Garde, France

    Jean-François Chailan

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  1. Hongying Hou
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Correspondence to Philippe Knauth.

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Hou, H., Maranesi, B., Chailan, JF. et al. Crosslinked SPEEK membranes: Mechanical, thermal, and hydrothermal properties. Journal of Materials Research 27, 1950–1957 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2012.151

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2012.151

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