In-house synthesized poly(ether ether ketone) ionenes. I. ToF-SIMS spectra in the positive ion mode

Static time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) was performed for acquiring the high-resolution surface spectra of four types of synthesized imidazolium ionene membranes. These novel membranes have aromatic ether-ketone-ether linkages inspired by poly(ether ether ketone) (PEEK). The PEEK-ionenes synthesized for this study have imidazolium cations placed in the polymeric backbone with bistriflimide [Tf2N](-) counterions. The attention given to synthetically modified PEEK derivatives, such as PEEK-ionenes, is considerable due to their ability to selectively capture CO2 molecules and other light gases. Therefore, it is important to characterize the surface of these synthesized novel PEEK-ionenes. In this work, characteristic and unique peaks were identified in the positive spectra of each sample. The differences in mass spectra among the samples provide insights for optimizing or fine-tuning the PEEK-ionenes synthesis to achieve a high-performance CO2 separation membrane with enhanced permeability, selectivity, and mechanical stability. The SIMS spectra and identified characteristic peaks of these synthesized ionenes will serve as a reference in the positive mode, complementing the corresponding spectra reported in the negative ion mode (Paper II).