Poly(1,2,4-vinyltriazole) (PVTr) and poly(1,2,4-vinyltriazole-co-5-vinyltetrazole-co-acrylonitrile) (P(VTr-VT-AN)) were prepared by normal free radical polymerization and click chemistry, respectively. The structure of the polymers was characterized by FTIR spectra, H NMR spectrum and elemental analysis. Compared with polybenzimidazole (PBI) which is one of the most widely studied anhydrous proton conducting polymers, the solubility of vinyltriazole-based polymers is improved significantly. They are soluble in a lot of polar solvents. The glass-transition temperatures of such kind of polymers are between 70 and 85 degrees C, thus indirectly indicating the improvement of fabricating properties. In phosphoric acid doped membranes, the higher the basicity of the vinyltriazole-based polymers is, the higher the proton conductivity is. The temperature dependence of the proton conductivity of the acid doped membranes can always be fitted by a simple Arrhenius equation. Transmittance of phosphoric acid doped vinyltriazole-based polymers is above 80% in the range of visual spectra and changes a little with the different structure and basicity of the copolymers. (C) 2007 Published by Elsevier Ltd.