Facile and green fabrication of polybenzoxazine-based composite anion-exchange membranes with a self-cross-linked structure

• DOI: 10.1007/s11581-017-2433-y
• Publication Date: 2018-01-19T02:00:48Z
• Authors: Naeem Akhtar Qais...; Yanjiao Ma; Lingling Ma; Jiafei Liu; Li Gao; Lv Li; Shoutao Gong; Xiaoming Yan; Fengxiang Zhang; Gaohong He
• Keywords: 02 engineering and technology; 0210 nano-technology

A new type of composite anion-exchange membrane is fabricated using benzoxazine (Bz) monomer and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) via a green and facile method. Membrane fabrication is achieved via in situ ring-opening polymerization of Bz within the PTFE matrix, followed by quaternization and ion-exchange reactions. The quaternized PBz works as a self-cross-linked and anion conductive polymer. The synthesized membranes show improved conductivity (26 to 70 mS/cm) at a reasonable water uptake and a low swelling ratio; they also show improved alkaline stability for 150 h at 60 °C in 1 M KOH solution, the decrease in conductivity being only ca. 10%. Our method of AEM fabrication is advantageous over conventional ones due to facile process and the avoidance of chloro- or bromomethylation as well as the self-cross-linked structure; the resulting membranes show relatively good performance as compared with some of those obtained from conventional techniques.