• Macromolecular Research
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.379-384
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• 2007

Sulfonation of polyetheretherketones (PEEK) was carried out in order to fabricate commercial perfluorosulfonic acid membrane alternatives, which were characterized in terms of their ion exchange capacity, ionic conductivity, water swelling, methanol crossover and electrochemical performance in their direct application as a methanol fuel cell. A high ion exchange capacity, 1.88, was achieved with a sulfonation reaction time of 8 h, with a significantly low methanol crossover low compared to that of Nafion. However, the morphological stability was found to deteriorate for membranes with sulfonation reaction times exceeding 8 h. Electrochemical cell tests suggested that the fabrication parameters of the membrane electrode assembly based on the sulfonated PEEK membranes should be optimized with respect to the physicochemical properties of the newly prepared membranes.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2003

Poly(ether ether ketone)(PEEK) was sulfonated using sulfuric acid and blended with polysulfone with various ratios. The blended polymer electrolyte membranes were characterized in terms of methanol permeability, proton conductivity and ion exchange capacity. As the amount of sulfonated PEEK increased, both methanol permeability and proton conductivity increased. This was due to the increase of ion exchange capacity. The experimental results indicated that the blend membrane with 20% polysulfone was the best choice In terms of the ratio of proton conductivity to methanol permeability.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.690-694
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• 2015

Recently, direct formic acid fuel cells (DFAFC) among direct liquid fuel cells is studied actively. Economical hydrocarbon membranes alternative to fluorinated membranes for DFAFC's membrane are receiving attention. In this study, characteristics of sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone, sPEEK) and sulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone, PAES) membranes were compared with Nafion membrane at DFAFC operation condition. Formic acid crossover current density of hydrocarbon membranes were lower than that of Nafion 211 fluorinated membrane. I-V performance of sPEEK MEA(Membrane and Electrode Assembly) was similar to that of Nafion 211 MEA due to similar membrane resistance each other. sPEEK MEA with low formic acid crossover showed higher stability compared with Nafion 211 MEA.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.270-276
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• 2011

A nascent membrane was prepared by using the solution evaporation method with a solution of sPEEK, EdAn (cross-linking reagent), and PEA (grafting reagent) in DMAc. Then, after the imination and sulfonation process the cross-linked and grafted ion-exchange membrane, CG-sPEEK, was obtained. The sulfonation and imination reactions were confirmed by FTIR analysis. In order to evaluate the possibility of prepared membrane for the use of an ion-exchange membrane in PEMFC, proton conductivity, water uptake and volume change were measured and compared with a commercial membrane, Nafion 115. It was revealed that since the proton conductivity (0.17 S/cm) of prepared membrane were much higher than those of Nafion 115 (0.10 S/cm) the prepared membrane could be used for the ion-exchange membrane in PEMFC. However, the high water uptake (130%) of CG-sPEEK should be reduced for the dimension stability.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.181-186
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• 2016

Recently, there are many efforts focused on development of more economical non-fluorinated membranes for use in PEMFCs (Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells). In this study, characteristics of sulfonated Poly(ether ether ketone) (sPEEK) were compared according to degrees of sulfonation (DS), relative humidity, cell temperatures at PEMFC operation condition. I-V polarization curve, hydrogen crossover, electrochemical surface area, membrane resistance and charge transfer resistance were measured. sPEEK membrane showed high performance at high DS, high temperature and high relative humidity, in particular, performance of sPEEK membrane decreased largely due to low ionic conductivity at low DS and low relative humidity.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.17-21
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• 2019

The redox flow battery (RFB) is a large-capacity energy storage equipment, and the vanadium redox flow cell is a typical RFB, but VRFB is expensive. Iron-chrome RFBs are economical because they use low-cost active materials, but their low performance is an urgent problem. One of the reasons for the low performance is the crossover of the active materials. In this study, the sulfonated Poly (ether ether ketone) (sPEEK) membrane, which is a hydrocarbon membrane, was used instead of the fluorine membrane to reduce the crossover of the active materials. The chromium ion permeability of the sPEEK membrane was $1.8{\times}10^{-6}cm^2/min$, which was about 1/33 of that of the Nafion membrane. Thus, it was shown that the use of the sPEEK membrane instead of the fluorine membrane could solve the high active material crossover problem. The activation energy of iron diffusion through the sPEEK membrane was 24.9 kJ/mol, which was about 66% of Nafion membrane. And that the e-PTFE support in the polymer membrane reduces the active material crossover through Iron-Chrome Redox Flow Battery (ICRFB).

• Membrane Journal
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.447-455
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• 2015

In this study, Polysulfone (PSf) and polyetherimide (PEI) as the anion exchange polymers were aminated in the different ratio whereas the polyether ether ketone (PEEK) as the cation exchange polymer was sulfonated. The bipolar membranes of SPEEK (sulfonated PEEK)/APSf (aminated PSf) and SPEEK/APEI (aminated PEI) were prepared by the double-casting method. The surfaces of bipolar membranes were fluorinated in accordance with the amination ratio and applied to produce the hypochlorite. As the amination increased, the hypochlorite concentration is also increased. Typically, for SPEEK/APSf 3 : 1 membrane, the produced hypochlorite concentration was 61.0 ppm and its durability was 220 min for the non-fluorinated membrane while for the fluorinated membrane, the concentration of 58.6 ppm and its durability lasted 570 min. Also for SPEEK/APEI 3 : 1 membrane, the hypochlorite concentrations of 60.1 ppm and 58.3 ppm for before- and after-fluorination, respectively were observed whereas the durability was remarkably developed from 150 min to 440 min. Therefore, the surface fluorination takes an important role for the development of the membrane durability.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.40-48
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• 2005

Until recently, only perfluorinated ionomer membrane such as Nation and Aciflex practically could be successfully used in water splitting. However, these membrane are limited by high cost and loss of membrane performance such as proton conductivity at elevated temperature above 80$^{\circ}C$. The sulfonated aromatic polymers such as PEEK and PSf, polyimides, and polybenzimidazoles are expected to have lower production cost as well as satisfactory chemical and electrochemical properties. HPAs and sulfonated polymers could have a significant influence on water electrolysis performance at elevated temperatures above 80$^{\circ}C$, but these phenomena have received relatively little attention until now. Therefore, it would be desirable to investigate the interrelation between the HPA and sulfonated polymer, such as SPEEK. The SPEEK membrane were prepared by the sulfonation of PEEK, and HPA was blended with SPEEK to increase the mechanical strength and electrochemical characteristics. As a results, electrochemical characteristics such as proton conductivity and ion exchange capacity were improved with the addion of 0.5 g HPA. And the properties of polymer electrolyte, SPEEK/HPA were better than Nation membrane at elevated temperature above 80$^{\circ}C$.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.247-252
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• 2013

Sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) with a certain degree of sulfonation were synthesized by reacting PEEK and sulfuric acid at different reaction time. Then ion-selective composite carbon electrodes (ISCCE) were fabricated by coating the prepared SPEEK on the surface of carbon electrodes. The specific capacitance and resistance of the ISCCE were analyzed by electrical impedance spectroscopy. The ion exchange capacities (IEC) of the SPEEKs were measured in the range of 1.60~2.57 meq/g depending on the sulfonation time. The SPEEK more than 2.5 meq/g of IEC was considered unsuitable for fabricating the ISCCE because it was dissolved in water. The specific capacitance of the prepared ISCCE increased with increasing the IEC of coated SPEEKs and the capacitance was improved up to about 20% compared to that of uncoated carbon electrode. In addition, the electrical resistance of coating layer decreased significantly with increasing the IEC of coated SPEEKs. It is expected that the desalination efficiency of conventional capacitive deionization process can be improved by using the prepared ISCCE coated with SPEEK.

• KEPCO Journal on Electric Power and Energy
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.127-131
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• 2016

Polymer electrolyte membrane for unitized regenerative fuel cells requires high proton conductivity, high dimensional stability, low permeability, and low cost. However, DuPont's Nafion which is a commercial polymer electrolyte membrane has high permeability, high cost, and decreasing proton conductivity and dimensional stability over $80^{\circ}C$. To address these problems, sulfonated poly ether ether ketone (sPEEK) which is a low cost hydrocarbon polymer is selected as matrix polymer for the preparation of polymer electrolyte membrane. In addition, composite membrane with improved proton conductivity and dimensional stability is prepared by introducing sulfonated graphene oxide (sGO). The fundamental properties of polymer electrolyte membranes are analyzed by investigating membrane's water content, dimensional stability, proton conductivity, and morphology. The cell test is conducted to consider the possibility of application of sPEEK/sGO composite membrane for an unitized regenerative fuel cell.