Proton exchange membrane bearing entangled structure: Sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone)/bismaleimide hyperbranch

Physical cross-linking of sulfonated poly(ether ether ketones) sPEEKs with hyper-branched bismaleimide oligomer (modified bismaleimide, mBMI) leads to densely packed polymer. Different curing conditions on the two sPEEK samples containing Bismaleimide (BMI) monomer and modified Bismaleimide oligomers (mBMI) mole ratios of 70:30 (mBMI(30)) and 2:98 (mBMI(98)) are present. As the amount of BMI monomer increases, the branched structure and their degree of entanglement with sPEEK polymer matrix also increase. More rigid and more compact membrane is found in the case of mBMI(30). In contrast, relatively loose entangled network is found for mBMI(98) sample where the mBMI unit remains far apart and mostly un-connected, until high concentration of mBMI(98) is present. The branched structure and their degree of entanglement with sPEEK polymer matrix increases with longer curing time. The results shows physical cross-linking with highly branched mBMI is effective in reducing water uptake, lower methanol permabiity with reduced sPEEK membrane swelling. Except for heavily entangled sample (sPEEK/mBMI(30)) annealed for 20 h, all membranes displayed fair proton conductivity above 10^-2 S/cm at room temperature. Methanol permeability is also substantially reduced to 1.39 × 10^-7 cm²/s for sPEEK/15% mBMI(98). The DMFC single cell assembled by the sPEEK/20% mBMI(98) membrane (59 μm thickness) displayed the highest OCV of 839 mV with a power density reaching 30 mW/cm² at 60 °C. This value is higher than that using sPEEK membrane alone.