Sulfonated poly(arylene ether phosphine oxide ketone) block copolymers as oxidatively stable proton conductive membranes.

The introduction of triphenylphosphine oxide moiety into the hydrophilic segments of aromatic multiblock copolymers provided outstanding oxidative stability and high proton conductivity. Our designed multiblock copolymers are composed of highly sulfonated phenylene ether phosphine oxide ketone units as hydrophilic blocks and phenylene ether biphenylene sulfone units as hydrophobic blocks. High molecular weight block copolymers (Mw = 204-309 kDa and Mn = 72-94 kDa) with different copolymer compositions (number of repeat unit in the hydrophobic blocks, X = 30, and that of hydrophilic blocks, Y = 4, 6, or 8) were synthesized, resulting in self-standing, transparent, and bendable membranes by solution-casting. The block copolymer membranes exhibited well-developed hydrophilic/hydrophobic phase separation, high proton conductivity, and excellent oxidative stability due to the highly sulfonated hydrophilic blocks, which contained phenylene rings with sulfonic acid groups and electron-withdrawing phosphine oxide or ketone groups.