Synthesis of polyketone-g-vinylbenzyl chloride anion exchange membrane via irradiation and its properties

Abstract

A novel anion exchange membrane composed of aminated polyketone-g-vinylbenzyl chloride was synthesized via Co-60 gamma-ray irradiation grafting technique. Total irradiation dose and concentration of monomers were set as variables to determine degree of grafting. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy equipped with energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (SEM-EDS) were used to characterize the grafted membranes. Water uptake (WU) and swelling ratio (SR) were measured with a gravimetric method. A titration method was used to detect ion exchange capacity (IEC), whereas electrical resistance (ER) and ion conductivity (IC) were measured with a LCR meter. Our method has boosted the degree of grafting up to 97.6% from 3.7% as total irradiation dose and monomer concentration have been increased. WU and SR were in the ranges 1.5%-35.6% and 0.35%-20.9%, respectively. Also, IEC has taken values ranging between 0.2 and 1.19 meq/g. IC has varied within the range 0.01-0.3 S cm(-1), and it has shown a rising trend as IEC increased. In this study, the optimum synthesis conditions have been 70 kGy of total irradiation dose and 50wt% of monomers. The membrane synthesized here is potentially superior to Nafion membrane in terms of several properties.