Hydrogenated diblock copoly(norbornene)s bearing triimidazolium anion exchange membranes with enhanced alkaline stability for fuel cells

Overcoming the trade-off relationship between conductivity and alkaline stability is a crucial challenge for the practical application of anion exchange membranes (AEMs) in fuel cells. The cross-linked hydrogenated diblock copoly (norbornene)s AEMs with bulky substituted s-triazine based triimidazolium cation clusters were prepared. The prepared H-rPNB-T-triMPh-diMIm-1.64 has the low swelling ratio (SR less than 20%), reasonable water uptake (WU = 82.9%), and high ionic conductivity (114.8 mS cm−1) at 80 °C. In addition, the membrane is able to maintain 91.3% of the initial conductivity after being exposed to 1 M NaOH solution at 80 °C for 32 days. The single cells assembled with H-rPNB-T-triMPh-diMIm-1.64 exhibit a peak power density of 272 mW cm−2 under a current density of 650 mA cm−2 at 80 °C. The novel development strategy that the imidazolium cation cluster functionalized poly (norbornene) is promised to be an effective approach to develop the high-performance AEMs for application in fuel cells.