Abstract
Polyimides (PIs) with pendant benzimidazole groups have been synthesized via different ratio of 5-(1H-benzoimidazol-2-yl)-benzene-1-3-diamine (DABI) and dianhydride monomers (6FDA) and utilized as efficient proton conducting membranes for fuel cell applications. The synthesized polyimides showed an excellent performance in terms of proton conductivity, studied by impedance analyzer and polyimide with high DABI content exhibit highest conductivity (0.097 S/cm) at high temperature (150 °C). Additionally, synthesized polyimides are thermally stable and exhibit high dielectric constants which were investigated by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and capacitance method, respectively. Thus the synthesized polyimides open a new gate way to utilize them as an efficient proton conductor to fabricate proficient fuel cell.