Solvent induced conversion of microdomain structure in block copolymer electrolyte thin films

Abstract

The block copolymer electrolytes have become interesting owing to their potential applications for proton exchange membranes in fuel cells. Thus an attention has been paid to understand the structure-property relation in block copolymer electrolytes. In particular, the morphology-performance correlation is one of the most important characteristics of block copolymer electrolytes, because the primary performances such as transport properties are strongly dependent on the morphology. Therefore, in this study, the solvent induced microstructure conversion in sulfonated polystyrene-b-hydrogenated polybutadiene-b-polystyrene block copolymer electrolyte was examined with transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The introduction of hydrophilic solvent-methanol to hydrophilic-tetrahydrofuran modified the internal structure of the block copolymer electrolyte, then generated a unique morphology. This work will be of help to understand the interactions between block copolymer electrolytes and solvents. (C) 2014 The Korean Society of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.