Carbon nanocomposites self‐assembly UiO‐66‐doped chitosan proton exchange membrane with enhanced proton conductivity

Abstract

Summary One‐dimensional (1D) sodium ligninsulfonate functionalized carbon nanotubes (SCNT), two‐dimensional (2D) graphene oxide (GO), and three‐dimensional (3D) zirconium‐based metal‐organic frameworks (UiO‐66) are self‐assembled as filler materials for proton‐exchange membranes (PEMs) because of their potential for extending proton transport pathways. Herein, UiO‐66‐SCNT and UiO‐66‐SCNT@GO were prepared by a facile solvothermal synthesis and then the nanohybrid chitosan (CS) PEMs were fabricated via solution casting. The hybrid PEMs with higher ion exchange capacity than the pure CS membrane displayed higher proton conductivity and selectivity. The proton conductivity of nanohybrid membrane doped with 7 wt% UiO‐66‐SCNT@GO (CS/U‐S@GO‐7) was enhanced to 64 mS cm−1 at 70°C. Simultaneously, the selectivity was reached 19.4 × 104 S s cm−3 and was much higher than the pristine CS membrane (0.13 × 103 S s cm−3). Moreover, the mechanical properties of all composite membranes were significantly enhanced compared with that of the pure CS membrane. The results showed that our research provided a valuable strategy for designing high‐performance CS‐based PEMs in direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC). Highlights A simple and facile solvothermal synthesis was used to prepare UiO‐66‐SCNT@GO. UiO‐66‐SCNT@GO was introduced into chitosan (CS) matrix to optimize proton transport channels. CS‐based hybrid membranes exhibit high proton conductivity and selectivity. CS‐based hybrid membranes show low methanol permeability.

A dual-function Cd-MOF with high proton conduction and excellent fluorescence detection of pyridine

“…39 The values of IEC have a certain correlation with the proton conductivity of the composite membrane. 40,41 The IECs of the pure CS membrane and Cd-MOF@CS-X composite membranes are shown in Fig. 3.…”

Multiple Strategies to Fabricate a Highly Stable 2D CuIICuI–Organic Framework with High Proton Conductivity

“…Nafion is the first and currently the most widely used proton conduction material . However, its large-scale applications are limited by its high cost and limited working temperatures. , Therefore, recently, researchers have been working on the design and development of alternatives.…”

Synthesis of highly water‐absorbing chromium oxyhydroxide as a dopant in a hybrid proton‐conducting membrane

“…In the field of proton conduction, the current research trend is designing new materials with superior proton conductivity, including phosphoric acid and sulfonic acid derivatives, [8][9][10][11][12] polyoxometalates, [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20] metal-organic Dongming Cheng and Mengxi Wei contributed equally to this work. frameworks, [21][22][23][24][25][26] covalent-organic frameworks, [27][28][29] and carbon allotropes. 5 But these materials usually suffer tough synthetic conditions or complex synthetic approaches so that they are not easy to be scaled up.…”