β-Cyclodextrin-enabled, densely cross-linked anion-exchange membranes for fuel cell applications

Polyarylpiperidinium anion exchange membranes (AEMs) have been widely studied in anion exchange membrane fuel cells and alkaline electrolyzed water due to their excellent alkali resistance stability. In this work, we report the design and fabrication of poly(p-triphenylene-piperidinyl) (PTP) AEMs quaternized and cross-linked by bromo-β-cyclodextrin (β-CD-Br 7 ). In this type of membranes, the densely cross-linked and quaternized sites derived from β-CD-Br 7 can help to construct continuous ion transport channels to facilitate ion conduction. Although the ion exchange capacity (IEC) tended to decrease with increasing cross-linking degree, the qPTP-CD 5 membrane with 5 % cross-linking (IEC = 2.3 mmol g −1 ) produced the most significant microphase separation and the highest conductivity (125.6 mS cm −1 at 80 °C). The membrane also exhibited impressive alkaline stability, with 94.6 % conductivity retention in 1 M NaOH at 80 °C after 1000 h and 90.7 % conductivity retention after 1500 h. Finally, the peak power density of the fuel cell assembled with qPTP-CD 5 membranes was 1.216 W cm −2 at 80 °C and there was no significant voltage degradation when operated at 200 mA cm −2 current density for 40 h. This work demonstrates that β-CD can function as a good “platform” for simultaneous cross-linking and quaternization to fabricate high performance AEM.