Abstract:A novel monomer 3,3′-bis(3,5-diphenylbenzene)- bis(4-fluorophenyl)sulfone was designed and synthesized through free-radical substitution and Suzuki coupling reactions. A series of sulfonated poly(aryl sulfone)s were prepared by the aromatic nucleophilic substitution polycondensation and post-sulfonation reaction using this monomer, bis(4-fluorophenyl)sulfone and 4,4′-dihydroxybenzophenone as starting material. The results of FT-IR and 1H-NMR spectra show that the structures of polymers are in good agreement with the proposed structures. All obtained membranes own low water uptake and swelling ratio and their swelling ratios are not more than 15.7%. AFM test shows that these membranes form an obvious "hydrophilic-hydrophobic" phase separation structure, which is beneficial to the increase of proton conductivity. At 80 ℃, the proton conductivity of the TS-PAS-34 membrane with an IEC of 1.96 mmol/g reaches 182 mS/cm, which is comparable to that of Nafion112. It is superior to other reported proton exchange membranes with a similar ion exchange capacity (IEC). Moreover, TS-PAS-xx also exhibits good thermal properties, mechanical properties and chemical oxidative stability.