Simultaneous Enhancements of Conductivity and Stability for Anion Exchange Membranes (AEMs) through Precise Structure Design

Polymeric materials as anion exchange membranes (AEMs) play an essential role in the field of energy and environment. The achievement of high performance AEMs by the precise manipulation of macromolecular architecture remains a daunting challenge. Herein, we firstly report a novel rod-coil graft copolymer AEM, possessing rigid hydrophobic main chains and soft hydrophilic graft chains. The low graft density, which can alleviate the adverse influences of ionic graft chains on the main chains, was obtained by using the living polymerization technique. Consequently, the grafted ionic groups which result in the degradation of polymer backbone was decreased to a small degree. Moreover, the relatively long graft chains induced the nanophase separation between the hydrophobic polymer chains and hydrophilic graft chains, which creates a convenient pathway for high hydroxide ion mobility. Such an accurate molecular design simultaneously improves the hydroxide ion conductivity and alkaline stability as well as dimensional stability.