Poly(arylene ether ketone) with tetra quaternary ammonium carbazole derivative pendant for anion exchange membrane

As a key component of fuel cell, the anion exchange membrane (AEM) must present high durability, which includes dimensional stability, thermal stability, and alkali resistance. In order to obtain AEM with high performance, besides stable structure, the polymer should have high molecular weight and advantaged functional group position. In this work, a novel high molecular weight polymer precursor, poly(arylene ether ketone) (PAEK) with iodobenzene pendent was designed and prepared. And then, the function tetra-quaternary ammonium carbazole was introduced onto polymer backbone by Ullmann grafting reaction and quaterisation. The obtained membranes exhibited good dimensional stability, appropriate thermal stability and high ion conductivity. In addition, the membranes exhibited good alkaline resistance, as it still kept 90% of the conductivity after immersion in 4M NaOH solution for a week. Over all, the membranes in this work are promising for anion exchange membrane fuel cell.