Synthesis of the first difunctional N-fluoro perfluoroalkylsulfonylimides, CF3SO2NFSO2(CF2)nSO2NFSO2CF3

Perfluorosulfonyl Imide versus Perfluorosulfonic Acid Ionomers in Proton-Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells at Low Relative Humidity

Designing highly conductive ionomers at high temperature and low relative humidity is challenging in proton-exchange membrane fuel cells. Perfluorosulfonyl imide ionomers were believed to achieve this goal, owing to their exceptional acidity and excellent thermal stability. Perfluorosulfonyl imide ionomers are less conductive than the analogous perfluorosulfonic acids despite similar membrane microstructure. In this study, the distinct behavior is rationalized by in situ synchrotron infrared spectroscopy during hydration. The protonation mechanism, formation of the protonic moiety and water clustering are totally different for the two different families of membranes. The ionization mediated by trans-to-cis conformational transition of the perfluorosulfonyl imide ionomer is not accompanied by the formation of hydronium ions. In contrast, Zundel-ion entities were identified as the elementary protonic complex, which is stable over the hydration range. The H-bond network of surrounding water molecules appears to be less connected and the protons remain highly localized and unavailable for efficient structural transport. The delocalization of protons and their mitigated interaction with the surrounding medium are prominent effects that negatively impact conductivity.

Cooperative intermolecular S–Cl⋯O and F⋯F associations in the crystal packing of α,ω-di(sulfonyl chloride) perfluoroalkanes, ClSO2(CF2)nSO2Cl, where n = 4, 6

Halogen bonding between neighboring sulfonyl chloride groups and short fluorine–fluorine contacts supports crystal formation in the title compounds.

Solid Polymer Electrolytes from Crosslinked PEG and Dilithium N,N'-Bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)perfluoroalkane-1,ω-disulfonamide and Lithium Bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide Salts

The present work consists of a series of studies with regard to the structure and charge transport in solid polymer electrolytes (SPE) prepared using various new bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide (TFSI)-based dianionic dilithium salts in crosslinked low-molecular-weight poly(ethylene glycol). Some of the thermal properties (glass transition temperature, differential molar heat capacity) and ionic conductivities were determined for both diluted (EO/Li = 30:1) and concentrated (EO/Li = 10:1) SPEs. Trends in ionic conductivity of the new SPEs with respect to anion structure revealed that while for the dilute electrolytes ionic conductivity is generally rising with increased length of the perfluoroalkylene linking group in the dianions, for the concentrated electrolytes the trend is reversed with respect to dianion length. This behavior could be the result of a combination of two factors: on one hand a decrease in dianion basicity that results in diminished ion pairing and an enhancement in the number of charge carriers with increasing fluorine anion content, thereby increasing ionic conductivity while on the other hand the increasing anion size and concentration produce an increase in the friction/entanglements of the polymeric segments which lowers even more the reduced segmental motion of the crosslinked polymer and decrease the dianion contribution to the overall ionic conductivity. DFT modeling of the same TFSI-based dianionic dilithium salts reveals that the reason for the trend observed is due to the variation in ion dissociation enthalpy, derived from minimum-energy structures, with respect to perfluoroalkylene chain length.