High-performance side-chain-type anion exchange membranes with triptycene-based hydrophobic segments

The development of high-performance anion exchange membranes (AEMs) with superior conductivity and stability remains a challenge. Herein, a series of novel side-chain-type AEMs (QBHF-Trp-x) containing triptycene-based hydrophobic segments is designed and prepared. Benefiting from the featured hydrophobic segments, QBHF-Trp-x AEMs possess excellent conductivities up to 229.7 mS cm–1 at 80 °C. Meanwhile, QBHF-Trp-x AEMs have good dimensional stability, mechanical properties and alkaline stability. Notably, the optimized QBHF-Trp-30 AEM achieved a remarkable peak power density of 2.55 W cm–2 at a current density of 3.60 A cm–2, with a good durability of 150 h at 60 °C. This work demonstrates that the excellent performance of QBHF-Trp-x AEMs mainly benefit from the incorporated triptycene-based hydrophobic segments with internal molecular free volume. The proposed strategy is expected to pave a new way for the development of high-performance AEMs.