4-formyl dibenzo-18-crown-6 grafted polyvinyl alcohol as anion exchange membranes for fuel cell

4-formyl dibenzo-18-crown-6 (FDB18C6) was synthesized through dibenzo-18-crown-6 (DB18C6), and it was added into polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) through acetal reaction to form a new type of membrane (F-X%-P). Then the F-X%-P membranes were immersed into the KOH solution to prepare F-X%-P-K membranes, which through the complexation of crown ion on K+. The complex crown ether cation was successfully applied as anion conducting groups. The characterization and experimental results showed that F-X%-P-K membranes had already successfully synthesized, and possess better anionic conductivity and alkali resistance stability compared with other anion exchange membranes (AEMs). The water uptake and swelling ratio of F-20%-P-K membrane was reduced to 25.0% and 14.5%, separately, suppressed effectively the excessive swelling of PVA. And the dimensional stability of F-20%-P-K was 21.1%, which reflected excellent membrane stability. In addition, especially outstanding performance was the anionic conductivity of F-X%-P-K membranes increased from 7.63 mS.cm(-1) to 25.32 mS.cm(-1) at 70 degrees C, which confirmed excellent anionic conductive ability. After alkali treatment of preparing membranes, the conductivity degradation rate is less than 8.6% reflected superb alkali resistance. The aforementioned results defined that the F-X%-P-K membranes comply with the requirements in the anion exchange membrane fuel cell.