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Water electrolysis is by far the most appealing method to produce green hydrogen. Among the possible technologies, Anion Exchange Membrane (AEM) water electrolyzers are promising in the medium term, as they make it possible to avoid critical and noble materials as catalyst components. However, AEMs are still lacking in performance and stability, which has become the current research focus. Here, we report the facile and inexpensive chemical modification of polyketone (PK) with a functional unit encompassing morpholinium as the positively charged group, and the fabrication of self-standing membranes. The synthesis products are investigated with an ensemble of physico-chemical and spectroscopic techniques, including solid-state and time-domain NMR, FT-IR, and thermal analysis. The membranes show good Ion Exchange Capacity values in the range 1.48-2.24 mmol g À 1 . A preliminary electrolysis test shows that the PK-based membrane has performance comparable to that of a commercial one.

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Although disposable Zn-based batteries have been developed into widespread commercial devices decades ago, successful applications of rechargeable Zn batteries are still hindered by various technical drawbacks, a crucial one being limited cycle-life, due to uncontrolled morphology changes of the anode upon applying discharge/charge sequences. In this work, we report a systematic post mortem and in situ X-ray computed microtomography-based investigation of Zn electrode cycling for traditional and innovative electrolyte chemistries and electrode configurations, at current densities and depths of discharge of practical interest. 3D imaging of intact cells revealed unprecedented morphochemical details of anode shape change that could be explicitly modelled and systematically correlated with operating conditions.

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