Characterizing Cation Chemistry for Anion Exchange Membranes--Alkyl-Substituted Benzyltetramethylimidazolium and Benzyltrimethylammonium Salts in Base.

Base stability and degradation of imidazolium-functional materials have been a focus of research on anion exchange membranes for electrochemical devices. Despite extensive work, mechanistic questions can cloud efforts to correlate results from model compounds and polymeric membranes. Here, we report an NMR study of behavior in aqueous KOH of benzyltetramethylimidazolium and benzyltrimethylammonium salts with and without -alkyl-substitution to probe whether base attack at the alkyl substituent plays a role in the reaction pathways.