Beyond Small Molecular Cations: Elucidating the Alkaline Stability of Cationic Moieties at the Membrane Scale

A major hindrance in the commercialization of alkaline polyelectrolyte-based electrochemical energy conversion devices is the development of durable anion exchange membranes (AEMs). Despite many alkali-stable cations that have been explored, the stability of these cationic moieties at the membrane scale is in the blind. Herein, we present a molecularly designed polyaromatic AEM with cationic moieties in an alternating manner to unbiasedly compare the alkaline stability of piperidinium and ammonium groups at the membrane state. Using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, we demonstrate that the pentyltrimethyl group is about 2-fold more stable than piperidinium within a polyaromatic scaffold, either in ex-situ alkaline soaking or in-situ cell operation. This finding challenges the judgment extrapolated from the stability trend of cations, that is, the piperidinium-functionalized AEM is more alkali-stable than the counterparts based on quaternary ammoniums. Moreover, the deterioration mechanism of piperidinium moiety after being embedded in polyaromatic backbone is rationalized by density functional theory.