Chae, Ji Eon Lee, So Young Baek, Sae Yane Song, Kwang Ho Park, Chi Hoon Kim, Hyoung-Juhn Lee, Kwan-Soo 2024-01-19T13:30:44Z 2024-01-19T13:30:44Z 2021-10-21 2021-11-15 0376-7388 https://pubs.kist.re.kr/handle/201004/116133 The present paper describes the design and evaluation of novel hydrophilic-hydrophobic poly(arylene ether sulfone) (PAES) multiblock copolymers for their synergistic effects upon transport properties and their potential use in proton exchange membrane water electrolysis. The multiblock copolymers are prepared via a coupling reaction between (i) a hydrophilic segment consisting of a disulfonated quinone fluorinated biphenyl group that contains fluorine moieties next to the sulfonated groups to increase the acidity, and (ii) hydrophobic segments composed of non-sulfonated biphenyl sulfone to provide dimensional stability. Two different lengths (molecular weights; 5 k and 10 k, where k represents 10(3) g mol(-1)) of hydrophobic segments are used to investigate the effects of the membrane properties compared with those of Nafion (R) and PAES random copolymer (i.e., BPSH40). Atomic force microscopy images of the BPSH40 and multiblock membranes are shown to agree closely with a mesoscale simulation, thus confirming the importance of the morphological effect upon the transport properties. Moreover, the multiblock copolymer with a higher proportion of hydrophilic segments (10 k-5k) was shown to provide enhanced performance (3.41 A cm(-2) at 1.9 V) compared to the multiblock copolymer with equal proportions of hydrophilic and hydrophobic segments (10 k-10 k) due to the greater continuity of nano-sized ionic channels. English ELSEVIER POLY(ARYLENE ETHER SULFONE) PROTON-EXCHANGE MEMBRANES STATISTICAL COPOLYMERS MORPHOLOGY IONOMERS HYDROGEN BEHAVIOR SYSTEMS CELLS High-performance multiblock PEMs containing a highly acidic fluorinated-hydrophilic domain for water electrolysis Article 10.1016/j.memsci.2021.119694 1 JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE, v.638 JOURNAL OF MEMBRANE SCIENCE 638 scie scopus 000691546500007 2-s2.0-85112403892 Engineering, Chemical Polymer Science Engineering Polymer Science Article POLY(ARYLENE ETHER SULFONE) PROTON-EXCHANGE MEMBRANES STATISTICAL COPOLYMERS MORPHOLOGY IONOMERS HYDROGEN BEHAVIOR SYSTEMS CELLS Multiblock copolymer Proton exchange membrane water electrolysis Phase separation Morphology Mesoscale simulation