Investigation of SPPO Membranes by Positron Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy

Positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) is a powerful technique to study the free volume in polymers. The lifetime of ortho-positronium (o-Ps), a bound state of an electron and a positron, can be used to assess the pore size while the intensity can be used to characterize the number of pores. On the basis of the values of the long-lived o-Ps components in the lifetime spectra, the radii and fractional free volumes in the sulfonated poly (2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenyleneoxide) (SPPO) membranes with different amounts of LiCl were calculated. It was found that, with the increasing amount of LiCl, the free volume radius and the fractional free volume firstly increased and then decreased. After immersing the membranes in distilled water, the free volume radius and the fractional free volume changed with different water concentrations in the membrane