Thermal, photoresponsive and conductivity studies of nitroazobenzene polymer / Nur Afiqah Mohamad Iskandar

The liquid crystalline materials have been greatly used in the application of fuel cell membrane. The fuel cell membrane are now being developed and demonstrated for power conversion system. The problem of nowadays fuel cell is the difficulties of the ion transport in the electrolyte membrane. Hence, by introducing liquid crystal polymer, in this research, the nitroazobenzene polymer will provide a better passage for the ion transport between the electrode of the membrane. This research aim is to study the thermal, photoresponsive and conductivity characteristics of the nitroazobenzene polymer in both homopolymer and terpolymer. The poly[6-(4-nitro4-oxyazobenzene) hexylmethacrylate] (AzoN6) homopolymer and terpolymer consisting of sulfonic acid (AMPS) and methyl methacrylate (MMA) were synthesized by radical polymerization. Both of the samples were characterized by Differential Scaning Calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), UVVisible spectrophotometry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The azobenzene group that attached with –NO2 in the polymers revealed that the homopolymer and terpolymer have light responsive properties and exhibit glass transition at considerably low temperature. It is hope that the study can contribute to the improvement of fuel cell membrane in the future.