Preparation of fluorinated polymer electrolyte membranes by radiation-induced graft polymerization of perfluorovinylethers containing a sulfonic acid precursor

Hasegawa, Shin; Maekawa, Yasunari

To develop application in a fuel cell, a chemical stability is one of the most important parameter. For chemical resistance, fluorinated polymers having repeating unit -CF-CF- like poly (tetrafluoroethylene) have excellent performance. A radiation grafting technique allows us to introduce ion conducing regions directly into polymer films. However, there have been no reports for successful preparation of grafted chains using fluorinated monomers. In this paper, we report the first successful preparation of the PEM having fluorinated grafted chains by radiation-induced graft polymerization.