Developing high temperature proton exchange membranes (HT-PEMs) with high conductivity and mechanical strength simultaneously is a considerable challenge for the HT-PEM fuel cell (HT-PEMFC). Herein, a 1-(3-aminopropyl)imidazole (APIm) functionalized low-cost poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) membrane (PVC-APIm) with superior phosphoric acid (PA) doping content and high proton conductivity is synthesized via a gentle and facile method with no need for the chloromethylation procedure. The poly(ether ketone cardo) (PEK-C) polymer is blended with PVC-APIm to provide sufficient mechanical robustness. Interestingly, blending PEK-C not only improves the mechanical stability, but also increases the PA doping content of membranes. As a result, PA doped PVC-APIm/x%PEK-C membranes possess increased tensile strength and upgraded conductivity simultaneously. The PVC-APIm/10%PEK-C/166%PA membrane exhibits a low area swelling of 45%, high conductivity of 0.132 S cm⁻¹ at 180 °C and suitable tensile strength of 11.8 MPa at room temperature. The single cell performance of this membrane demonstrates the technical feasibility of the PVC-APIm/x%PEK-C/PA membrane for the HT-PEMFC.

中文翻译：

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1-（3-氨基丙基）咪唑官能化聚氯乙烯/聚醚酮心基膜的制备及研究

同时开发具有高电导率和机械强度的高温质子交换膜（HT-PEM）是HT-PEM燃料电池（HT-PEMFC）的巨大挑战。本文通过温和的方法合成了具有优异的磷酸（PA）掺杂含量和高质子传导性的1-（3-氨基丙基）咪唑（APIm）功能化低成本聚氯乙烯（PVC）膜（PVC-APIm）简便的方法，无需进行氯甲基化步骤。将聚（醚酮cardo）（PEK-C）聚合物与PVC-APIm共混以提供足够的机械强度。有趣的是，共混PEK-C不仅改善了机械稳定性，而且还增加了膜的PA掺杂含量。结果，PA掺杂了PVC-APIm / x％PEK-C膜同时具有更高的拉伸强度和更高的电导率。PVC-APIm / 10％PEK-C / 166％PA膜的低面积膨胀率为45％，在180°C下的电导率为0.132 S cm ^-1，在室温下的拉伸强度为11.8 MPa。该膜的单电池性能证明了用于HT-PEMFC的PVC-APIm / x％PEK-C / PA膜的技术可行性。