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Lookup NU author(s): Richard Espiritu, Emeritus Professor Bernard Golding, Emeritus Professor Keith Scott, Professor Mohamed MamloukORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2017 The Authors. Low-density polyethylene (LDPE)-based anion exchange membranes (AEMs) with 65% degree of grafting of vinylbenzyl chloride (VBC) were tethered with different amine functionalities namely, trimethyl amine (TMA), 1,4-diazabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO), 1-azabicyclo[2.2.2]octane (ABCO) and N-methylpiperidine (NMP), and were subjected to degradation test by immersing the OH- exchanged AEMs in deionised water at 60 °C, a condition analogous to fuel cell and electrolyser environment. All the quaternised membranes, regardless of the tethered amine functional group, exhibited similar degradation loss of ca. 5% IEC per month. Benzylic peroxide was detected in the degradation solution in all the tested AEMs. The observed degradation of the OH- exchanged AEMs was mainly attributed to peroxide and hydroxide radical attacks on the ternary (benzylic) carbon resulting in the release of vinylbenzyl trimethylammonium hydroxide (VBTMA) as a whole which was also detected. The degradation test performed on TMA-functionalised membrane under nitrogen, oxygen and 3 wt% H2O2 showed similar degradation products namely benzylic peroxide and VBTMA suggesting that the degradation mechanisms under these three conditions are similar. The over three-fold increase in the degradation rate under oxygen saturated solution compared to nitrogen is due to the higher peroxide concentration produced from oxygen reduction to superoxide via ylide.
Author(s): Espiritu R, Golding BT, Scott K, Mamlouk M
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Power Sources
Year: 2018
Volume: 375
Pages: 373-386
Print publication date: 31/01/2018
Online publication date: 27/07/2017
Acceptance date: 22/07/2017
Date deposited: 21/09/2017
ISSN (print): 0378-7753
Publisher: Elsevier BV
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2017.07.074
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpowsour.2017.07.074
Data Access Statement: http://dx.doi.org/10.17634/138124-3
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