Design of Ion-Containing Polymer-Grafted Nanoparticles
for Conductive Membranes
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Abstract
While sulfonated polymers are commonly
used in membranes for fuel
cells and water filtration applications, challenges of controlling
ionic aggregation and understanding morphology effects on conductivity
and transport still remain. In this work, we investigate the aggregation
of copolymer-grafted nanoparticles that are designed to form conductive
structures with low sulfonation amounts of chains. We demonstrate
that long grafts of polystyrene chains with sulfonated end groups
form side-by-side aggregated strings and retain their structures in
ionic liquid, 1-hexyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide,
[HMIM][TFSI]. Transmission electron tomography results revealed that
these aggregates are monolayers of particles at low sulfonations and
planar-like networks at 3 mol % sulfonation in the ionic liquid. Organization
of magnetic nanoparticles with the polymer grafting approach is shown,
for the first time, to enhance conductivity upon incorporation of
an ionic liquid