Studies on the Crosslinked Multiblock Sulfonated Poly(arylene Ether Sulfone) Membranes for Fuel Cell Applications

Polymers based on sulfonated multiblock copoly(arylene ether sulfone)s were prepared successfully by the reaction between a phenoxide-end-capped hydrophilic oligomer and a fluoride-end-capped hydrophobic oligomer. They were subsequently used as the starting material to prepare crosslinking membranes (cbSPAES) using P2O5 as the crosslinking reagent during the membrane casting procedure. The fundamental properties of the resulting crosslinked multiblock membranes, such as water uptake, size change, proton conductivity and hydrolytic stability were investigated in details.