Water electrolyzers based on anion exchange membranes (AEM) enable the use of platinum group metal-free catalysts, substantially lowering the capital costs of this technology and thereby reducing the price of green hydrogen. Their industrial adoption is limited by the poor durability of AEMs, precluding long term operation. A very promising class of AEMs in terms of stability are poly(aryl piperidiniums)s (PAPs), which combine an heteroatom free backbone with the stable piperidinium cationic group. The simplest and less expensive chemistry in this family is based on poly(biphenyl piperidinium), which has so far been considered unsuitable for membrane fabrication due to poor mechanical properties. Through optimized polymerization parameters we obtained mechanically resistant films down to a thickness of 15 μm. The membranes reach an ambitious conductivity of 185 mS cm⁻¹ (80 °C, 100% RH) with almost no degradation signs after 360 h in 1 M KOH at 80 °C. Importantly, we demonstrate their viability in an electrolyzer cell, outperforming a PAP-based commercial membrane. We believe that these results present strong potential for not expensive AEMs with an easy synthesis, that will serve as a benchmark for further optimization of PAP-based polymers.

基于阴离子交换膜 (AEM) 的水电解槽可以使用不含铂族金属的催化剂，从而大大降低该技术的资本成本，从而降低绿色氢的价格。它们的工业应用受到 AEM 耐用性差的限制，无法长期运行。就稳定性而言，一类非常有前途的 AEM 是聚（芳基哌啶）（PAP），它结合了无杂原子的主链和稳定的哌啶阳离子基团。该家族中最简单且成本较低的化学物质是基于聚（联苯哌啶），由于机械性能差，迄今为止被认为不适用于膜制造。通过优化聚合参数，我们获得了厚度低至 15 μm 的机械抗性薄膜。⁻¹（80 °C，100% RH），在 80 °C 的 1 M KOH 中 360 小时后几乎没有降解迹象。重要的是，我们证明了它们在电解池中的可行性，优于基于 PAP 的商用膜。我们相信，这些结果为廉价且易于合成的 AEM 提供了强大的潜力，这将作为进一步优化基于 PAP 的聚合物的基准。