Effect of the pore surface modification of an inorganic substrate on the plasma‐grafting behavior of pore‐filling‐type organic/inorganic composite membranes

We have investigated the effect of the surface state and surface treatment of the pores of an inorganic substrate on the plasma‐grafting behavior of pore‐filling‐type organic/inorganic composite membranes. Shirasu porous glass (SPG) was used as the inorganic substrate, and methyl acrylate was used as the grafting monomer. The grafting rate increased as the density of silanol on the SPG substrate increased. This result suggests that radicals are generated mainly at the silanol groups on the pore surface by plasma irradiation. The SPG substrates were treated with silane coupling agents used to control the mass of organic material bonded to the pore surface. The thickness of the grafted layer became thinner as the mass of organic material bonded to the pore surface of SPG increased. This decrease in the thickness of the grafted layer could be explained by the decrease in the penetration depth of vacuum ultraviolet rays contained in plasma having a wavelength of less than 160 nm that generated radicals in the pores of the substrate. The thickness of the grafted layer inside the SPG substrates could be controlled through the control of the mass of organic material bonded to the pore surface of the SPG substrate. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 44: 846–856, 2006     

Investigation of sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone sulfone)/heteropolyacid composite membranes for high temperature fuel cell applications

The sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone sulfone) (SPEEKS)/heteropolyacid (HPA) composite membranes with different HPA content in SPEEKS copolymers matrix with different degree of sulfonation (DS) were investigated for high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells. Composite membranes were characterized by Fourier transfer infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). FTIR band shifts suggested that the sulfonic acid groups on the copolymer backbone strongly interact with HPA particles. SEM pictures showed that the HPA particles were uniformly distributed throughout the SPEEKS membranes matrix and particle sizes decreased with the increment of copolymers' DS. The holes were not found in SPEEKS‐4/HPA30 (consisting of 70% SPEEKS copolymers with DS = 0.8 and 30% HPA) composite membrane after composite membranes were treated with boiling water for 24 h. Thermal stabilities of the composite membranes were better than those of pure sulfonated copolymers membranes. Although the composite membranes possessed lower water uptake, it exhibited higher proton conductivity for SPEEKS‐4/HPA30 especially at high temperature (above 100 °C). Its proton conductivity linearly increased from 0.068 S/cm at 25 °C to 0.095 S/cm at 120 °C, which was higher than 0.06 S/cm of Nafion 117. In contrast, proton conductivity of pure SPEEKS‐4 membrane only increased from 0.062 S/cm at 25 °C to 0.078 S/cm at 80 °C. At 120 °C, proton conductivity decreased to poor 0.073 S/cm. The result indicated that composite membranes exhibited high proton conductivity at high temperature. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 1967–1978, 2006     

Evaluation of piezoelectric PVDF polymers for use in space environments. III. Comparison of the effects of vacuum UV and gamma radiation

Films of piezoelectric PVDF and P(VDF‐TrFE) were exposed to vacuum UV (115–300 nm VUV) and γ‐radiation to investigate how these two forms of radiation affect the chemical, morphological, and piezoelectric properties of the polymers. The extent of crosslinking was almost identical in both polymers after γ‐irradiation, but surprisingly, was significantly higher for the TrFE copolymer after VUV‐irradiation. Changes in the melting behavior were also more significant in the TrFE copolymer after VUV‐irradiation due to both surface and bulk crosslinking, compared with only surface crosslinking for the PVDF films. The piezoelectric properties (measured using d₃₃ piezoelectric coefficients and D‐E hysteresis loops) were unchanged in the PVDF homopolymer, while the TrFE copolymer exhibited more narrow D‐E loops after exposure to either γ‐ or VUV‐radiation. The more severe damage to the TrFE copolymer in comparison with the PVDF homopolymer after VUV‐irradiation is explained by different energy deposition characteristics. The short wavelength, highly energetic photons are undoubtedly absorbed in the surface layers of both polymers, and we propose that while the longer wavelength components of the VUV‐radiation are absorbed by the bulk of the TrFE copolymer causing crosslinking, they are transmitted harmlessly in the PVDF homopolymer. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 3253–3264, 2006     

Mechanical endurance of polymer electrolyte membrane and PEM fuel cell durability

The life of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) is currently limited by the mechanical endurance of polymer electrolyte membranes and membrane electrode assemblies (MEAs). In this paper, the authors report recent experimental and modeling work toward understanding the mechanisms of delayed mechanical failures of polymer electrolyte membranes and MEAs under relevant PEMFC operating conditions. Mechanical breach of membranes/MEAs in the form of pinholes and tears has been frequently observed after long‐term or accelerated testing of PEMFC cells/stacks. Catastrophic failure of cell/stack due to rapid gas crossover shortly follows the mechanical breach. Ex situ mechanical characterizations were performed on MEAs after being subjected to the accelerated chemical aging and relative humidity (RH) cycling tests. The results showed significant reduction of MEA ductility manifested as drastically reduced strain‐to‐failure of the chemically aged and RH‐cycled MEAs. Postmortem analysis revealed the formation and growth of mechanical defects such as cracks and crazing in the membranes and MEAs. A finite element model was used to estimate stress/strain states of an edge‐constrained MEA under rapid RH variations. Damage metrics for accelerated testing and life prediction of PEMFCs are discussed. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 2346–2357, 2006     

Characterization and electrical properties of polypyrrole/multiwalled carbon nanotube composites synthesized by in situ chemical oxidative polymerization

This study describes the preparation of polypyrrole (PPy)/multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWNT) composites by in situ chemical oxidative polymerization. Various ratios of MWNTs, which served as hard templates, were first dispersed in aqueous solutions with the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide to form micelle/MWNT templates and overcome the difficulty of MWNTs dispersing into insoluble solutions of pyrrole monomer, and PPy was then synthesized via in situ chemical oxidative polymerization on the surface of the templates. Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), field‐emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and high‐resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) were used to characterize the structure and morphology of the fabricated composites. Structural analysis using FESEM and HRTEM showed that the PPy/MWNT composites were core (MWNT)–shell (PPy) tubular structures. Raman and FTIR spectra of the composites were almost identical to those of PPy, supporting the idea that MWNTs served as the core in the formation of a coaxial nanostructure for the composites. The conductivities of these PPy/MWNT composites were about 150% higher than those of PPy without MWNTs. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 44: 1413–1418, 2006     

Combinational simulations of free energy of polymer solution

It is conceptually proposed that the total entropy of polymer solution is contributed from two distinct parts: the positional and the oomformational. The former can be represented analytically, while the latter can be simulated with the random self-avoiding walk model on the simple cubic lattice for multichain systems. The obtained results indicated that both the conformational entropy and the mixing heat are consistent with the scaling laws wry well.     

Thermal Analysis of the Conformational Disorder in SCLC Polymers with Rigid Backbone Glass transition studies

Bis [(ω-(4′-cyanobiphenyl)-4-yl)oxy-n-alkyl]norborn-5-ene-2,3-dicarboxylate was polymerised via ring opening metathesis polymerisation (ROMP). Two disubstituted polynorbornene derivatives both of cis configuration with different length of the side-chain were studied. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to study the effect of thermal history on the assignment of the glass transition event associated with the biaxial orientation of a smectic phase. Glass transition temperatures, the change of isobaric specific heats at T_g and the enthalpies of isotropisation were calculated. The DSC traces only show the classic step-wise change in T_g in some cases, giving the evidence that the amorphous domains are constrained and highly restricted in movement due to the morphology developed as a result of the biaxial stretching. Based on the literature data of mono- and disubstituted polynorbornene derivatives and our calorimetric experiments, the shape of T_g dependence on number of (CH₂) units is interpreted. The origin of this shape is discussed. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

一维螺旋状3，6-哒嗪二甲酸镉(Ⅱ)配位聚合物的合成与结构

Using the ligand pyridazine-3，6-dicarboxylate (H₂pzdc)， a coordination polymer [Cd₂(pzdc)₂(H₂O)₄] was synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis， thermal analysis， IR and single-crystal X-ray diffraction. The complex crystallizes in the tetragonal system with space group I4₁/a. The crystallographic data are: a=1.470 6(4) nm， c=1.489 8(6) nm， V=3.222 0(19) nm³， Z=16， μ=2.725 mm^-1， D_c=2.594 g·cm^-3， R₁=0.017 8， wR₂=0.044 6. In the complex， the cadmium(Ⅱ) ions with the eight-coordinated dodecahedral geometry are linked by the pzdc ligands to generate one-dimensional chains， which are associated into the three-dimensional architecture via O-H…O hydrogen bonding. CCDC: 658853.     

PHASE INVERSION AND ITS MECHANICAL MODEL STUDIES FOR THE TWO-PHASE POLYMER BLEND SYSTEMS (Ⅱ)——DYNAMIC VISCOELASTIC RESPONSE

The dynamic viscoelastic response of the two-phase polymer blend systems shows the characteristics of the thermorheologically complex materials. In this paper theoretical equations for describing the dynamic viscoelastic response of such polymer blend systems have been established by means of the mechanical modeling technique. The dynamic viscoelastic response of the blend systems at any blend composition can be predicted theoretically by using the equations established, provided that the dynamic viscoelastic response of the two pure components and the mechanical model parameters are known in advance. Thus, we provide an effective method for studying the dynamic mechanical properties and the molecular relaxation characteristics of the two-phase polymer blend systems.