References

Ion-conducting polymer membranes (proton exchange and anion exchange membranes) are a key component in clean energy conversion devices such as fuel cells, redox flow batteries, and water electrolysis. Currently, perfluorinated sulfonic acid polymers (e.g., Nafion) are state-of-the-art proton-conducting polymers, but they suffer from high cost, mediocre mechanical strength, and moderate operation temperature. Thus, it is highly desirable to develop readily tunable, high-performance ion-conducting membranes based on low-cost hydrocarbon polymers. Over the years we have developed novel polymer functionalization method that allows incorporation of a variety of ionic (cation and anion) groups to aromatic polymers [1-3]. How structural variations of ionic side groups and polymer backbones affect ion transport properties and fuel cell performance wil