A novel polymer brushes functionalized graphene oxide enhanced poly(terphenyl piperidinium) anion exchange membrane

Regulating the microstructure of anion exchange membranes through composite enhancement is a proven and effective method to improve membrane performance. In this study, a reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization was adopted to graft high-density cationic groups on the surface of graphene oxide (GO) using brush-like polymer structure, endowing the polymer brush functionalized GO (pGO) with good ionic conductivity. Then, it was blended with quaternized poly(terphenyl piperidinium) (QPTP) to prepare the composite membrane. It was found that when the content of pGO was 0.5 wt%, the pGO-QPTP membrane exhibited suppressed swelling ratio (12.4%@80 °C), satisfactory conductivity (120.5 mS cm − 1 @80 °C), and outstanding alkaline stability (> 2500 h), which was due to the enhanced interactions between the hydrophilic and hydrophobic components within the composite membrane. In addition, compared to the QPTP membrane, the single cell assembled with the pGO-QPTP membrane achieved a maximum power density of 406 mW cm − 2 at 70 °C, which was more than double that of the former.