Proton donor/acceptor copolymer brushes on sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) membrane: An approach to construct efficient proton transfer pathway in polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell

Proton transfer in polymer electrolyte membrane is an essential mechanism fuel cell (PEMFC). The development of PEM mostly relies on modification with proton conductive species followed by casting. This brings the random existence to result a limit conductivity. present work proposes alignment species, i.e., donor and acceptor chains, through surface-initiated polymerization so that proceeds effectively continuously. grafting poly(acrylic acid) (Poly(AA) and/or poly(benzimidazole acrylamide) (Poly(BImAm)) onto sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) enables brush decoration SPEEK surface. Among various types copolymer architecture, statistical copolymer, i.e. SPEEK-Poly(AA63-stat-BImAm26), shows most significant demonstrates simple approach modify surface PEMFC donor/acceptor for conductivity enhancement.