TY  - JOUR
AU  - Zhao, Yue
AU  - Yoshimura, Kimio
AU  - Yu, Hwan-Chul
AU  - Maekawa, Yasunari
AU  - Hiroki, Akihiro
AU  - Kishiyama, Yoshihiro
AU  - Shishitani, Hideyuki
AU  - Yamaguchi, Susumu
AU  - Tanaka, Hirohisa
AU  - Koizumi, Satoshi
AU  - Appavou, Marie-Sousai
AU  - Houston, Judith
AU  - Radulescu, Aurel
AU  - Richter, Dieter
TI  - Small angle neutron scattering study on the morphology of imidazolium-based grafted anion-conducting fuel cell membranes
JO  - Physica / B Condensed matter B
VL  - 551
SN  - 0921-4526
CY  - Amsterdam
PB  - Elsevier
M1  - FZJ-2018-07403
SP  - 203 - 207
PY  - 2018
AB  - Two imidazolium based graft-type of anion-conducting electrolyte membranes (AEMs) for fuel cells with a moderate ion exchange capacity of ∼1.0 mmol/g were successfully prepared by radiation-induced grafting to introduce imidazolium and styrene units into a poly(ethylene-co-tetrafluoroethylene) (ETFE) base film. Though imidazolium groups were desired to connect with styrene groups via two different ways, i.e. parallel or perpendicular orientations to the graft-polymer chains via copolymerization (AEM1) or homo-polymerization (AEM2), both AEMs possess high ion conductivity (>100 mS/cm at 60 °C) and modest stability. The morphologies of these membranes were elucidated by small-angle neutron scattering method. Our results revealed that 1) both AEMs show clear microphase separation with a length scale of 30–40 nm, and the semi-crystalline structural feature of the hydrophobic microdomains contributes to the membrane mechanical property; 2) at the length scale <6 nm, ionic structures of the two AEMs are different: Parallel type of AEM1 shows a homogeneous distribution of ions in the ion channel; while perpendicular type of AEM2 shows ionic clusters nanophase-separated from the graft polymers.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000455012800042
DO  - DOI:10.1016/j.physb.2018.01.064
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/858532
ER  -