• Membrane Journal
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.292-300
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• 2014

Chlorine-resistant sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) random copolymer (SPAES)-thin film composite (TFC) membranes for desalination are prepared using monoglyme as a selective solvent, which dissolves SPAES, but should be inert to porous polysulfone layer (e.g., Udel$^{(R)}$). Different from formic acid and diethylene glycol used as other selective solvents, monoglyme is environmentally friendly and has much lower boiling temperature. After a pretreatment of Udel$^{(R)}$ support film in isopropyl alcohol-glycerine mixture to minimize pore penetration leading to fairly reduced water flux, coating of SPAES solution in monoglyme onto the support and stepwise drying processes are conducted for defect-free TFC formation. The transport behavior through SPAES-TFC membranes is observed, correlating with the effects of sulfonation level, protonation, and physical and chemical crosslinking of SPAES selective layers.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.146-151
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• 2016

Sulfonated poly (arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES) random copolymers have merits such as high proton conductivity, relatively low production cost, and thermochemical resistance when applied as polymer electrolyte membranes for fuel cells. However, it is difficult to directly employ SPAES copolymers into practical fuel cell membrane applications owing to their low chemical stability and dimensional instability under harsh operation conditions. A plausible solution is to impregnate SPAES copolymers into support films (e.g., electrospun polyimide support) with interconnected pore structures and high thermochemical toughness. In this study, a SPAES copolymer with a swivel group, which induces high free volume for fast ion transport, is chosen as ionomers to prepare pore-filling membranes (PFMs). The feasibility of the resulting membranes is evaluated via membrane characterizations.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.310-317
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• 2016

Lithium ion secondary battery (LISB) is an energy conversion system operated via charging-discharging cycle based on Lithium ion migration. LISB has a lot of advantages such as high energy density, low self-discharge rate, and a relatively high lifetime. Recently, increasing demands of electric vehicles have been encouraging the development of LISB with high capacity. Unfortunately, it causes some critical safety issues. It includes dendrite formation on negative electrode, resulting in electric shortage problems and battery explosion. Also, the elevated temperatures occurred during the LISB operation induces thermal shrinkage of polyolefin (e.g., polyethylene and polypropylene) separators. Consequently, the low thermal stability leads to decay of LISB performances and the reduction of lifetime. In this study, sulfonated poly (arylene ether sulfone) (SPAES) random copolymers were used as key materials to prepare polyolefin pore-filling separator. The resulting separators were evaluated in the term of metal ion chelation capability associated with dendrite formation, $Li^+$ ion conductivity and thermal durability.