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Aqueous alkaline metal-air batteries represent promising energy storage devices when supplied with atmospheric air. However, under this condition, the air electrode shows a very short life time (i.e. 50 h of operation in 5 M LiOH at −10 mA cm −2 ), mainly due to the precipitation of carbonates inside the electrode porosity. The air electrode can then be protected by an anion exchange membrane on the electrolyte side. In this paper, we demonstrate that the efficiency of this protective membrane depends on the assembly method on the electrode. When a modified poly(epichlorohydrin) (PECH) network is synthesized directly on the electrode, the polymer seeps inside the electrode porosity, and a suitable interface inducing negligible additional polarization in comparison with classical pressure-assembled membranes is obtained. This protected electrode shows improved stability of up to 160 h of operation in 5 M LiOH. This performance is improved to 350 h by adjusting the conductivity and the ionic exchange capacity. Finally, the interest of interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) architecture compared to a single network is confirmed. Indeed, an electrode protected with a PECH/poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) IPN is stable for 650 h in 5 M LiOH. In addition, degradation process becomes reversible since the assembly can be regenerated, which is not possible for the bare electrode. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]