High Proton Conductivity of 3D Graphene Oxide Intercalated with Aromatic Sulfonic Acids

Mohammad Atiqur Rahman; Md Saidul Islam; Mashahiro Fukuda; Junya Yagyu; Zhiqing Feng; Yoshihiro Sekine; Leonard F Lindoy; Junya Ohyama; Shinya Hayami

doi:10.1002/cplu.202200003

High Proton Conductivity of 3D Graphene Oxide Intercalated with Aromatic Sulfonic Acids

Chempluschem. 2022 Mar 8;87(4):e202200003. doi: 10.1002/cplu.202200003. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Mohammad Atiqur Rahman¹, Md Saidul Islam^{1

2}, Mashahiro Fukuda¹, Junya Yagyu¹, Zhiqing Feng³, Yoshihiro Sekine^{1

4}, Leonard F Lindoy⁵, Junya Ohyama^{2

3}, Shinya Hayami^{1

2

6}

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, 2-39-1 Kurokami, Chuo-ku, 860-8555, Kumamoto, Japan.
² Institute of Industrial Nanomaterials (IINa), Kumamoto University, 2-39-1 Kurokami, Chuo-ku, 860-8555, Kumamoto, Japan.
³ Division of Materials Science and Chemistry, Faculty of Advanced Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, 2-39-1 Kurokami, Chuo-ku, 860-8555, Kumamoto, Japan.
⁴ Priority Organization for Innovation and Excellence, Kumamoto University, 2-39-1 Kurokami, Chuo-ku, 860-8555, Kumamoto, Japan.
⁵ School of Chemistry, The University of Sydney, 2006, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
⁶ International Research Center for Agricultural and Environmental Biology (IRCAEB), 2-39-1 Kurokami, Chuo-ku, 860-8555, Kumamoto, Japan.

PMID: 35333452
DOI: 10.1002/cplu.202200003

Abstract

The development of efficient proton conductors that are capable of high power density, sufficient mechanical strength, and reduced gas permeability is challenging. Herein, we report the development of a series of aromatic sulfonic acid/graphene oxide hybrid membranes incorporating benzene sulfonic acid (BS), naphthalene sulfonic acid (NS), naphthalene disulfonic acid (DS) or pyrene sulfonic acid (PS) using a facile freeze dried method. For out-of-plane proton conductivity, the 3DGO-BS and 3DGO-NS yielded proton conductivities of 4.4×10^-2 S cm^-1 and 3.1×10^-2 S cm^-1 , respectively; this represents a two-times higher value than that which occurs for three dimensional graphene oxide (3DGO). Additionally, the respective prepared films as membranes in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) show maximum power density of 98.76 mW cm^-2 for 3DGO-NS while it is 92.75 mW cm^-2 for 3DGO-BS which are close to double that obtained for 3DGO (50 mW cm^-2 ).

Keywords: fuel cells; graphene oxide; intercalation; proton conductivity; proton exchange membranes.

Abstract

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