The quaternary ammonium group (QA) commonly used in conventional anion exchange membranes (AEMs) has a low dissociation constant with OH^-, resulting in poor conductivity. The crown ether group can significantly enhance the ion exchange capacity (IEC) and OH^- conduction efficiency of AEMs due to its ability to form positively charged complexes with alkali metal cations. Meanwhile, the ether bond in the crown ether ring exhibits good alkali and chemical stability. In view of the above advantages, a series of AEMs grafted with bi?crown ethers were successfully prepared by grafting dibenzo?18?crown?6?ether?modified polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) via metastable acid. The results showed that the bi?crown ether anion?exchange membranes exhibited higher OH^-selectivity and chemical stability compared with the mono?crown ether membrane materials; the prepared AEMs exhibited good OH^- selectivity and chemical stability in terms of electrical conductivity (conductivity of 165.5 mS/cm at 80 ℃), mechanical properties (tensile strength of 47 MPa at room temperature), and alkali stability (only 4.52% decrease in conductivity after immersion in KOH at a concentration of 6 mol/L for 168 h), and the high efficiency electrolysis of water to produce hydrogen based on platinum charcoal as the anode material, and the efficiency of electrolytic reduction reached 80%.

Fuel cells have attracted widespread attention owing to the merits of high efficiency, high safety and wide application, etc. Therefore, fuel cells can meet the increasing requirement for clean energy in human society. Among them, anion exchange membrane fuel cells have shown broad application prospects due to the environmental friendliness, the use of non?precious metal catalysts, high safety and stability, etc. As the core component of anion exchange membrane fuel cells, anion exchange membranes can isolate the anode from the cathode and conduct hydroxide ions. Thus, the property of anion exchange membranes plays a crucial role in the performance of anion exchange membrane fuel cells. In the development process of anion exchange membranes, the low conductivity and poor hydroxide ions conductivity stability have become the key technical challenge. The development of flexible anion exchange membranes can play a positive role in promoting the further commercialization of anion exchange membrane fuel cells. Based on this, this article reviews the recent research progress on flexible anion exchange membranes from three aspects: polymer molecular chain design, structural optimization design, and new material synthesis and the composites.

A series of novel anion exchange membranes (AEMs) were prepared by constructing semi?interpenetrating polymer networks (sIPN) based on imidazole functional brominated polyphenyl ether (ImF?BPPO) and quaternary ammonium polyvinyl alcohol (QPVA). The effects of different contents of QPVA on the comprehensive properties of the composite membranes were systematically studied, the structure of the series composite membranes was analyzed by ¹H?NMR and FT?IR, and the morphology of composite membrane was investigated by SEM, and the ion exchange capacity, water uptake and conductivity and other properties of the composite membranes were tested. The results show that the prepared series of composite membranes have good compatibility and no obvious phase separation phenomenon. When the mass fraction of QPVA was 40%, the water uptake and swelling rate of the composite membrane were 58.2% and 24.6%, respectively. At 80 ℃, the conductivity of the composite membrane reached 67.24 mS/cm. After soaking in 6 mol/L KOH alkaline solution for 168 h, about 90% of the initial conductivity was still retained, indicating that the membrane had good conductivity and alkali resistance stability.

At present, the demand for clean energy is constantly increasing to achieve sustainable development of human society. Among numerous new energy storage and conversion devices, proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) can directly convert chemical energy into electrical energy. Therefore, PEMFCs have been considered to have the merits of high efficiency, safety and wide application, etc. The proton exchange membrane is the core component of PEMFCs. However, the trade?off of proton conductivity and mechanical strength has become the primary challenge to hinder the development of proton exchange membranes. Although significant progress has been made in improving the single performance, the mutual constraints of key technical properties restrict the development of proton exchange membranes. Most importantly, the road to the commercialization of fuel cells is thus tortuous. We believe that the development of flexible proton exchange membranes is a main strategy to solve this technical challenge. Based on this, this article summarizes the recent research progress on flexible proton exchange membranes,including flexible polymer materials, structural optimization, and flexible additive design, expecting to provide inspiration for breaking through the performance bottleneck of flexible proton exchange membranes.