AmericanChemicalSociety.com
Reports: AC10 46784-AC10: Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Proton Conducting Membranes
We prepared sintered self-assembled nanoporous silica colloidal crystals modified with poly(3-sulfopropyl-methacrylate) and poly(stryrenesulfonic acid) brushes covalently attached to the nanopore surface. The resulting robust membranes possess temperature and humidity-dependent proton conductivity of ~2 × 10-2 S cm-1 at 30 °C and 94% R.H., ~1 × 10-2 S cm-1 at 85 °C and 60% R.H., and water uptake of ca. 20 wt% at room temperature. We also prepared proton conductive membranes by self-assembly of silica nanospheres modified with poly(3-sulfopropylmethacrylate) and poly(stryrenesulfonic acid) brushes of different thickness. We are presently developing proton-conducting membranes comprising the sinteres silica colloidal crystals and block-copolymers in order to study the relationship between the polymer structure and the proton conducting properties of the membrane.
