Branched polybenzimidazole / polymeric ionic liquid cross-linked membranes with high proton conductivity and mechanical properties for HT-PEM applications

Branched polymers have unique three-dimensional dendritic structures, so they have received a lot of attention in the application of high temperature proton exchange membranes. In this work, we synthesize BOPBI-X (X = 3%, 6%, 9%) membranes with different branched ratios based on the synthesis of OPBI, due to the introduction of a rigid triazine structure with a larger free volume, the membranes could absorb more phosphoric acid (PA) while maintaining sufficient mechanical strength. Among them, the BOPBI-6% membrane obtains splendid comprehensive performance, when the PA doping level (ADL) is 9.55, it achieves a proton conductivity of 99.2 mS cm−1 at 180 °C, which is 1.8 times higher than OPBI (54.8 mS cm−1), and it performs well in long-term oxidation stability test after 144 h, it still has a mass retention rate of 90%. For the sake of further boost the performance of the membrane, cross-linkable polymeric ionic liquid (PIL) is introduced to the system. Among them, BOPBI-PIL-30% membrane has sufficient mechanical properties (5.50 ± 0.8 MPa), and the proton conductivity (146.9 mS cm−1) at 180 °C is also excellent, so BOPBI-PIL-30% membrane is expected to be a promising candidate as HT-PEMs.