Acid-base high temperature proton exchange membranes prepared from phosphonic acid functionalized siloxane

Abstract

One kind of acid-base high temperature proton exchange membranes has been prepared from amino trimethylene phosphonic acid (ATMP), epoxycyclohexyethyltrimethoxysilane (EHTMS), and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) by sol-gel process. The structural characteristics of these membranes with different amount of APTES were investigated by FT-IR, XRD, and SEM. These membranes showed excellent dimensional stability in water with the contribution of flexible ionic network structure and were thermally stable up to about 200 °C. In addition, the proton conductivity of the membranes increased with increasing temperature over the range of 20 to 140 °C, up to a maximum of 2.63 × 10−2 S cm−1 at 140 °C under anhydrous condition. The high proton conductivity was attributed to the formation of hydrogen bond network through the synergistic effect of N and P. The activation energy value of membranes became lower from 0.46 to 0.30 eV because of the acid-base pairs. The variable-temperature FT-IR further proved the formation of hydrogen bond network in the membrane.