Preparation and characterization of directional conducting and lower methanol permeable ultrathin membrane based on poly (vinyl alcohol) and imidazolium compounds

•Cross-linked membrane was prepared successfully for ionic directional conduction.•The conductivity of the membrane enhances obviously by ionic directional conduction.•Alcohol resistance performance of the directional conducting membrane is better.•The proton directional conducting membrane exhibits high oxidative stability.

To produce directional conducting and lower methanol permeable ultrathin membrane for fuel cell, the imidazolium salt as both cross-linking agent and proton donor has been designed to build a directional proton conducting channel in a poly (vinyl alcohol)-based membrane. The methanol permeability of directional conducting membrane is very low, which is about twice smaller than that of Nafion117. In addition, the membranes show a relatively high oxidative durability in H2O2 solutions, with only about 10% weight loss after the membrane being immersed in 3% H2O2 solution for 120 h. All the properties of prepared directional conducting membrane indicate their promising prospects in proton conducting membrane applications.