In order to reveal the effects of ionic group structure and ions disctribution on the diffusion dialysis of anion exchange membranes ( AEMs) ，three kinds of side-chain ionic poly( arylene ether) AEMs and a main-chain ionic poly( arylene ether) AEM were synthesized． Then，the four kinds of AEMs were characterized and evaluated in terms of structure，basic performances，acid stability，mechanical properties and diffusion dialysis performance． The results indicate that the symmetric side-chain ionic AEMs have better permeability selectivity and the main-chain ionic AEM has the best permeability selectivity owing to its symmetric ionic structure and dense aggregate structure，and that the basic performances，acid stability and mechanical properties of the AEMs all make clear that the prepared AEMs satisfy the basic acquirements of an diffusion dialysis process． Moreover，the experimental results of diffusion dialysis in simulated waste acid indicate that the prepared AEMs have better diffusion dialysis performances than those of the commerical TWDDA1，especially the main-chain ionic AEM，which wins the competition of diffusion dialysis at room temperature with an excellent proton diffusion coefficient of 0. 025 m /h and a top separation factor of 42. 49． All these mean that QMPAES has a great potential for acid recovery via diffusion dialysis．