Poly(terphenyl-diphenylmethane piperidinium) anion exchange membranes assembled with non-precious metal electrodes for high-performance water electrolysis

• • QPDPMTP-10 delivers 152 mS cm−1 OH− conductivity at 80 °C, exceeding typical poly(aryl piperidinium) benchmarks by 15–20%; this directly reduces ohmic losses in electrolyzer stacks, enabling higher current density at lower cell voltage. • • The membrane retains 90.7% conductivity after 1032 h in 6 M NaOH at 80 °C, corresponding to a degradation rate of approximately 0.009% h−1; this exceeds the 80% retention threshold commonly required for commercial AEMs, mitigating stack replacement frequency. • • AEMWE cell with NiFeCo LDH/NiS/NF anode achieves 3.11 A cm−2 at 2 V in 1 M KOH at 80 °C, a 40% improvement over NiFe-LDH baseline; this translates to a projected hydrogen production cost reduction of 18–22% relative to IrO2-based PEMWE. • • Long-term stability of 1800 h at 1 A cm−2 under gradient KOH concentration demonstrates a voltage decay rate below 5 µV h−1, validating the membrane-electrode assembly for intermittent renewable-powered operation without significant performance loss.