Graphene
oxide (GO) membrane, bearing well-aligned interlayer nanochannels
and well-defined physicochemical properties, promises fast proton
transport. However, the deficiency of proton donor groups on the basal
plane of GO and weak interlamellar interactions between the adjacent
nanosheets often cause low proton conduction capability and poor water
stability. Herein, we incorporate sulfonated graphene quantum dots
(SGQD) into GO membrane to solve the above dilemma via synergistically controlling the edge electrostatic interaction and
in-plane π–π interaction of SGQD with GO nanosheets.
SGQD with three different kinds of electron-withdrawing groups are
employed to modulate the edge electrostatic interactions and improve
the water swelling resistant property of GO membranes. Meanwhile,
SGQD with abundant proton donor groups assemble on the sp2 domain of GO via in-plane π–π
interaction and confer the GO membranes with low-energy-barrier proton
transport channels. As a result, the GO membrane achieves an enhanced
proton conductivity of 324 mS cm–1, maximum power
density of 161.6 mW cm–2, and superior water stability
when immersed into water for one month. This study demonstrates a
strategy for independent manipulation of conductive function and nonconductive
function to fabricate high-performance proton exchange membranes.
Fabricating three-dimensional (3D) covalent organic framework (COF) membranes is in infancy stage. Here, we report the fabrication of free-standing uniform 3D COF membrane, COF-300 membrane, with interconnected nanochannels using interfacial...
Developing novel proton conductors is crucial to the electrochemical technology for energy conversion and storage. Metal− organic frameworks (MOFs), with a highly ordered and controllable structure, have been widely explored to prepare high-performance proton conductors. Albeit the prominent merits and great potential of the MOFbased materials such as MOF pellets or composite polymer electrolytes, constructing well-defined proton-transfer channels with much lower grain boundary resistance and more homogeneous distribution deserves extensive explorations. Herein, a kind of nanostructured metal−organic gel (MOG) with a three-dimensional (3D) interconnected proton-conductive network is prepared by a facile sol−gel method using Cr 3+ and sulfonated terephthalic as the metal source and organic ligand, respectively. During the gelation process, the primary metal−organic nanoparticles are cross-linked through mismatched growth and aggregate into the 3D wellpercolated gel network. The resultant MOG features in the tunable hierarchical structure and long-range continuous proton-transfer channels, leading to remarkably reduced energy barrier for proton conduction. Attributed to the sulfonated ligand and wellinterconnected proton-conductive pathways, MOG exhibits intrinsic proton conductivity that is about one order of magnitude higher than that of MIL-101-SO 3 H pellet (MIL, Mateŕial Institut Lavoisier). The method in this study can be extended to construct long-range continuous ionic channels for a number of solid electrolytes.
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