Facile synthesis of Br-PPO/f GO based polymer electrolyte membranes for electrochemical applications

We report the synthesis of anion exchange membrane based on brominated poly (2, 6-dimethyl-1, 4-phenylene oxide) (PPO) and polyethyleneimine (PEI) modified graphene oxide (GO). The prepared membrane are characterized electrochemically in terms of ion exchange capacity (IEC), water uptake (Wt), dimensional stability (Sd), and membrane ionic conductivity (ɸ). The surface morphology and structural analysis of membrane were performed by using AFM, TEM, FT-IR, XRD and 1HNMR. Thermal and mechanical analysis was done by using TGA, DMA and UTM. QP-5 membrane show good thermal and mechanical stability among all prepared membranes. The ionic conductivity and IEC value was found maximum in QP-5 and the value is 7.1 × 10−2 S cm−1 and 3.59 meq g−1. Mechanical study was determined by universal testing machine (UTM) analysis shows QP-5 membrane best among the membranes with modulus 6.5 MPa. The methanol crossover resistance for QP-5 membrane is calculated to be 2.27 × 10−7 cm2/s with the selectivity of 3.4 × 104. The power consumption during salt removal is also found to be lower compared to other synthesized membranes.