New Highly Sulfonated Polythioethers as Polyelectrolyte Membranes for Water Electrolysis

de Azpiazu Nadal I, Branco B, Tovar GE, Kerres J, Janssen RA, Reynaud S, Atanasov V (2025)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2025

Journal

ACS Polymers Au

DOI: 10.1021/acspolymersau.4c00079

Abstract

Herein, the synthesis and characterization of highly sulfonated poly(arylene thioethers) for application as polymer electrolyte membranes in water electrolysis are reported. In a first step, poly(arylene thioethers) were obtained by using mild reaction conditions of a polycondensation reaction between 4,4′-thiobisbenzenethiol and decafluorobiphenyl. In a second step, the resulting poly(arylene thioethers) were sulfonated by a fluorothiol displacement click reaction of the fluorinated monomers by sodium 3-mercapto-1-propanesulfonate. Thus, highly sulfonated polymers were obtained, resulting in water-soluble ionomers. Stable polymer electrolyte membranes with enhanced thermal and chemical stability were attained by blending ionomers with a poly(benzimidazole) derivative (PBI-OO). The resulting proton-exchange membranes (PEMs) based on the new sulfonated ionomer PBI-OO blends showed about 40% higher proton conductivity than Nafion at 90 °C. The proton-conducting membranes with the highest conductivity and best film-forming properties were applied for water electrolysis. Combined with optimized water oxidation and reduction catalysts, the selected tetra-sulfonated polymer-based PEM reached 1.784 V at 1 A cm-2 in the electrolysis of pure water.

Involved external institutions

Universität Stuttgart DE Germany (DE) Forschungszentrum Jülich / Research Centre Jülich (FZJ) DE Germany (DE) Eindhoven University of Technology / Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e) NL Netherlands (NL) University of Pau and Pays de l'Adour / Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour (UPPA) FR France (FR)

How to cite

APA:

de Azpiazu Nadal, I., Branco, B., Tovar, G.E., Kerres, J., Janssen, R.A., Reynaud, S., & Atanasov, V. (2025). New Highly Sulfonated Polythioethers as Polyelectrolyte Membranes for Water Electrolysis. ACS Polymers Au. https://doi.org/10.1021/acspolymersau.4c00079

MLA:

de Azpiazu Nadal, Ignasi, et al. "New Highly Sulfonated Polythioethers as Polyelectrolyte Membranes for Water Electrolysis." ACS Polymers Au (2025).

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