Proton exchange membranes from sulfonated polyetheretherketone and sulfonated polyethersulfone-cardo blends: Conductivity, water sorption and permeation properties

Five blend membranes were prepared by solvent evaporation from solutions of the synthesized sulfonated polyetheretherketone (SPEEK) and sulfonated polyethersulfone-cardo (SPESc). Their ion exchange capacity and degree of sulfonation determined by acid–base titration and by thermogravimetric analysis were consistent. The blends glass transition behavior obtained by differential scanning calorimetry suggests that the two sulfonated polymers are compatible in the whole composition range. The values of the activation energy for proton transport determined by conductivity measurements on the SPEEK-based blend membranes were in the range of 13–34 kJ mol−1, which suggest a mixed transport mechanism that involves both proton jumps on ionic sites and water of hydration and diffusion of proton–water complex in hydrophilic domains.The water vapor sorption in the membranes exhibits sigmoid-shape isotherms which were well fitted by the “new dual mode sorption” model, and the fitted parameters values were successfully used to model the change in the water permeation flux with the upstream water activity using the first Fick's diffusion equation. The fast increase in the permeation flux beyond a critical value of activity (0.5) was owing to the exponential concentration-dependent diffusion coefficient. These modelings allowed us to show a strong increase in the limit diffusion coefficient of water and a decrease in the water-diffusion plasticization coefficient with the SPEEK content in the polymer blends.