Silica-based nanocomposite membranes via the sol gel process of polyethoxysiloxane within a sulfonated poly(ether-ether-ketone) matrix: morphology and proton mobility

TL;DRAbstract

This thesis deals with the preparation and characterization of hybrid organic/inorganic membranes obtained from solutions, where the organic phase is the sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) and the inorganic phase are silica nanoparticles obtained from the in situ "water free" sol-gel process of polyethoxysiloxane (PEOS). PEOS is a soluble and liquid hyperbranched polymer of low viscosity synthesized in our laboratories via a one pot reaction between tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and acetic anhydride. The PEOS used within this thesis contains ca 48 wt% of silica. The use of the polymeric silica precursor PEOS instead of the commonly used TEOS offers several advantages among which the need of less water for the conversion into silica, the possibility to modify the ethoxy end-groups so that functional groups can be anchored to the silica particles, and the higher thermal stability of PEOS that allows the application of the sol-gel method not only for the preparation of materials from

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