In Situ-Doped Superacid in the Covalent Triazine Framework Membrane for Anhydrous Proton Conduction in a Wide Temperature Range from Subzero to Elevated Temperature

Wenbo Huang; Bin Li; Yue Wu; Ying Zhang; Wenxiang Zhang; Shuhui Chen; Yu Fu; Tong Yan; Heping Ma

doi:10.1021/acsami.1c01134

In Situ-Doped Superacid in the Covalent Triazine Framework Membrane for Anhydrous Proton Conduction in a Wide Temperature Range from Subzero to Elevated Temperature

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2021 Mar 24;13(11):13604-13612. doi: 10.1021/acsami.1c01134. Epub 2021 Mar 14.

Authors

Wenbo Huang^{1

2}, Bin Li^{1

2}, Yue Wu³, Ying Zhang³, Wenxiang Zhang³, Shuhui Chen³, Yu Fu³, Tong Yan³, Heping Ma³

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Applications, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, P. R. China.
² University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, P. R. China.
³ School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Energy Chemical Process Intensification, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.

PMID: 33719388
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c01134

Abstract

Synthesis of solid-state proton-conducting membranes with low activation energy and high proton conductivity under anhydrous conditions is a great challenge. Here, we show a simple and convenient way to prepare covalent triazine framework membranes (CTF-Mx) with acid in situ doping for anhydrous proton conduction in a wide temperature range from subzero to elevated temperature (160 °C). The low proton dissociation energy and continuous hydrogen bond network in CTF-Mx make the membrane achieve high proton conductivity from 1.21×10^-3 S cm^-1 (-40 °C) to 2.08×10^-2 S cm^-1 (160 °C) under anhydrous conditions. Molecular dynamics and proton relaxation time analyses reveal proton hopping at low activation energies with greatly enhanced mobility in the CTF membranes.

Keywords: covalent organic frameworks; covalent triazine framework; electrochemical energy conversion; proton-conducting membrane; relaxation process.