A Novel Methodology to Synthesize Highly Conductive Anion Exchange Membranes

Alkaline polyelectrolyte fuel cell now receives growing attention as a promising candidate to serve as the next generation energy-generating device by enabling the use of non-precious metal catalysts (silver, cobalt, nickel et al.). However, the development and application of alkaline polyelectrolyte fuel cell is still blocked by the poor hydroxide conductivity of anion exchange membranes. In order to solve this problem, we demonstrate a methodology for the preparation of highly OH(-) conductive anion exchange polyelectrolytes with good alkaline tolerance and excellent dimensional stability. Polymer backbones were grafted with flexible aliphatic chains containing two or three quaternized ammonium groups. The highly flexible and hydrophilic multi-functionalized side chains prefer to aggregate together to facilitate the formation of well-defined hydrophilic-hydrophobic microphase separation, which is crucial for the superior OH(-) conductivity of 69 mS/cm at room temperature. Besides, the as-prepared AEMs also exhibit excellent alkaline tolerance as well as improved dimensional stability due to their carefully designed polymer architecture, which provide new directions to pursue high performance AEMs and are promising to serve as a candidate for fuel cell technology.