Investigation of Humidity Dependent Surface Morphology and Proton Conduction in Multi-Acid Side Chain Membranes by Conductive Probe Atomic Force Microscopy.

In this report, we employ phase-contrast tapping mode and conductive probe atomic force microscopy (cp-AFM) as tools to investigate the nanoscale morphology and proton conductance of a 3M perfluoro-imide acid (PFIA) membrane (625 EW) over a large range of relative humidity (3-95% RH). As a point of comparison, we also investigate 3M perfluorosulfonic acid (PFSA) (825 EW) and Nafion 212. With AFM, we assess the membrane's water retention and mechanical stability at low RH and high RH, respectively. Cp-AFM allows us to spatially resolve the hydrophilic and electrochemically active domains under a similar set of conditions and observe directly the ties between membrane morphology and proton conductance. From our data, we are able to correlate the improved water retention indicated by the size of the hydrophilic domains with the proton conductance in the PFIA membrane at elevated temperature and compare the result with that observed for the PFSA and Nafion. At high RH conditions, we see evidence of a nearly continuous hydrophilic phase, which indicates a high degree of swelling.