An understanding of water permeation through solid polymer electrolyte (SPE) membranes is crucial to offset the unbalanced water activity within SPE fuel cells. We examine water permeation through an emerging class of anion exchange membranes, hexamethyl-p-terphenyl poly (dimethylbenzimidazolium) (HMT-PMBI), and compare it against series of membrane thickness for a commercial anion exchange membrane (AEM), Fumapem^® FAA-3, and a series of proton exchange membranes, Nafion^®. The HMT-PMBI membrane is found to possess higher water permeabilities than Fumapem^® FAA-3 and comparable permeability than Nafion (H⁺).

By measuring water permeation through membranes of different thicknesses, we are able to decouple, for the first time, internal and interfacial water permeation resistances through anion exchange membranes. Permeation resistances on liquid/membrane interface is found to be negligible compared to that for vapor/membrane for both series of AEMs. Correspondingly, the resistance of liquid water permeation is found to be one order of magnitude smaller compared to that of vapor water permeation.

HMT-PMBI possesses larger effective internal water permeation coefficient than both Fumapem^® FAA-3 and Nafion^® membranes (60 and 18% larger, respectively). In contrast, the effective interfacial permeation coefficient of HMT-PMBI is found to be similar to Fumapem^® (±5%) but smaller than Nafion^®(H⁺) (by 14%).

了解水通过固体聚合物电解质（SPE）膜的渗透对于抵消SPE燃料电池中水活度的不平衡至关重要。我们通过考察新兴类阴离子交换膜，六甲水渗透p -三联聚（dimethylbenzimidazolium）（HMT-PMBI），并将其与系列膜厚度为商业阴离子交换膜（AEM），Fumapem ^® FAA- 3，和一系列的质子交换膜，全氟磺酸^®。的HMT-PMBI膜被发现具有较高的透水性比Fumapem ^® FAA-3和相比拟的渗透率比的Nafion（H ⁺）。

通过测量通过不同厚度的膜的透水性，我们能够首次将阴离子交换膜对内部和界面的透水性进行分离。与两个系列的AEM的蒸汽/膜相比，在液/膜界面上的渗透阻力可忽略不计。相应地，发现液态水渗透的阻力比蒸气水渗透的阻力小一个数量级。

HMT-PMBI具有更大的有效的内部水透过系数比都Fumapem ^® FAA-3和Nafion ^®膜（大60和18％，分别地）。与此相反，HMT-PMBI的有效界面渗透系数被发现是类似于Fumapem ^®（±5％），但比的Nafion较小^®（H ⁺）（由14％）。