Electrolyte membrane, methods of manufacture thereof and articles comprising the same
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsRyo Tamaki, Steven Thomas Rice, Gary William Yeager
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed herein is a method of forming an electrolyte membrane comprising forming a mixture; the mixture comprising a polyhydroxy compound, an aromatic polyhalide compound and an alkali metal hydroxide; disposing the mixture on a porous substrate; reacting the mixture to form a crosslinked proton conductor; and sulfonating the proton conductor. Disclosed herein too is an article comprising a porous substrate; and a sulfonated crosslinked proton conductor disposed within pores of the porous substrate.
Claims22
A method of forming an electrolyte membrane comprising:
- forming a monomer mixture;
- the mixture comprising a polyhydroxy compound, an aromatic polyhalide compound and an alkali metal hydroxide;
- disposing the mixture on a porous substrate;
- reacting the mixture to form a crosslinked proton conductor;
- and sulfonating the proton conductor.
A method comprising:
- deprotonating a tris(hydroxyphenyl)ethane to produce a deprotonated tris(hydroxyphenyl)ethane;
- reacting the deprotonated tris(hydroxyphenyl)ethane with sulfonated difluorodiphenylsulfone in the pores of a porous substrate to produce cross-linked polyethersulfone as shown in the reaction (I)
- sulfonating the crosslinked polyethersulfone as shown in the reaction (II)
- to produce a sulfonated crosslinked polyethersulfone in the pores of the porous substrate.
A method of forming an electrolyte membrane comprising:
- forming a first mixture, the mixture comprising a first solvent, an alkali metal hydroxide and a compound of formula (V):
- where R16, R17 and R18 are each a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, a C1-10 alkyl group, a halogen-substituted C1-10 alkyl group, a C6-10 aryl group, or a halogen-substituted C6-10 aryl group and n, o and p are each independently integers of 1 to about 4;
- heating the first mixture;
- adding to the first mixture a compound of formula (VI):
- where X is a halogen and R19 and R20 are each independently a hydrogen atom, a halogen atom, a C1-10 alkyl group, a halogen-substituted C1-10 alkyl group, a C6-10 aryl group, or a halogen-substituted C6-10 aryl group, and q and r are each independently integers of 1 to 3;
- adding to the first mixture a second solvent to form a second mixture, wherein the second solvent comprises isopropanol and dimethylsulfoxide;
- disposing the second mixture on a porous substrate, the porous substrate comprising expanded polytetrafluoroethylene;
- reacting the second mixture to form a crosslinked proton conductor integrated with the porous substrate to form an electrolyte membrane;
- and
- sulfonating the crosslinked proton conductor with a sulfonating agent for form a sulfonated crosslinked proton conductor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.