Towards alkali-stable polymers and hydroxide exchange membranes functionalized with alicyclic quaternary ammonium cations
In the current work, cationic polymers functionalized with N-alicyclic quaternary ammonium (QA) cations were synthesized and characterized as potential hydroxide exchange membranes (HEMs) for application in fuel cells. Three different polymers, namely poly(arylene ether sulfone), spiro-ionene and poly(arylene alkylene), were explored as polymer backbones for the HEMs. Various mono- and spirocyclic