Research progress of functionalized graphite oxide based alkaline anion exchange membrane for fuel cells

As the core component of anion exchange membrane fuel cells, the development of anion exchange membranes has always been a hot research topic in this field, and their performance directly affects the energy efficiency and long-term operational stability of fuel cells. However, there is a contradiction between the high ion conductivity and excellent mechanical properties and alkaline stability of anion exchange membrane. Therefore, the introduction of functionalized graphite oxide (GO) into different membrane matrix materials to prepare composite membranes using organic-inorganic composite strategies has attracted extensive attention of researchers. This paper introduces the research progress of reduced GO, organic small molecule functionalized GO and macromolecular polymer brushes functionalized GO in improving the performance of anion exchange membrane, especially analyzes the doping amount of functionalized GO and the influence of functionalization methods on the ion conductivity of composite membrane. It is found that GO functionalized by macromolecular polymer brushes endows the composite membrane with higher ion conductivity, and shows great potential and application prospect in improving the comprehensive performance of the composite membrane. The development of membrane matrix materials with better alkaline resistance and ion conduction performance will also help to improve the comprehensive performance of composite membranes. However, the ion transport mechanism and enhancement mechanism of functionalized GO still need to be further studied.