Patent ID: 7572535

Claim:
An ion conducting copolymer comprising a first hydrophobic oligomer and optionally a second hydrophobic oligomers, an ion conducting monomer and a linking monomer to link said oligomers and said monomers; wherein said first hydrophobic oligomer has the formula (AB) m A or (BA) m B; and wherein said second hydrophobic oligomer has the formula (CD) n C or (DC) n D and said first and second hydrophobic oligomers are the same or different; wherein (AB) m A has the formula —(Ar 1 X 1 —Ar 2 —X 2 Ar 3 —X 3 ) m —Ar 1 X 1 —Ar 2 —) a and (BA) m B has the formula (Ar 3 —X 3 —Ar 1 —X 1 Ar 2 X 2 ) m —Ar 3 ) a wherein (CD) n C has the formula (Ar 4 —X 4 —Ar 5 —X 5 —Ar 6 —X 6 ) n —Ar 4 —X 4 —Ar 5 —) b and (DC) n D has the formula (Ar 6 —X 6 —Ar 4 —X 4 —Ar 5 —X 5 ) n —Ar 6 ) b ; wherein said ion conducting monomer has the formula (Ar 7 —X 7 —Ar 8 ) c ; and wherein said linking monomer has the formula —R 1 —Ar 9 —Y—Ar 10 —R 2 — where Ar 1 , Ar 2 , Ar 4 , Ar 5 , Ar 7 , Ar 8 , Ar 9 Ar 10 , are independently phenyl, substituted phenyl, napthyl, terphenyl, aryl nitrile, substitute aryl nitrile, and one or more of Ar 7 and/or one or more of Ar 8 further comprise an ion conducting group, X 1 and X 4 are independently —C(O) — or —S(O) 2 —X 2, X 3, X 5 and X 6 are independently —O — or —S—; X 7 is a bond, —C(O)— or S(O) 2 —, Ar 3 and Ar 6 are the same or different from each other and are wherein the ion conductive groups comprise SO 3 − , —COO − , H 2 PO 3 − or sulfonimide; R 1 and R 2 are independently —O-or —S—, wherein a and c are independently between 0.01 and 0.98, b is 0 or between 0.01 and 0.98 and a +b+c=1 , wherein m is between 1 and 12, n is between 1 and 12, and wherein Y is a bond, —C(O) —, or —S(O 2 ) —, and Ar 10 may be present or absent when Y is a bond.