Developing novel proton exchange membranes (PEMs) with low cost and superior performance to replace Nafion is of great significance. Polyoxometalate-doped sulfonated poly(aryl ether ketone sulfone) (SPAEKS) allows for the amalgamation of the advantages in each constituent, thereby achieving an optimized performance for the hybrid PEMs. Herein, the hybrid membranes by introducing 2MeIm-{Mo132} into SPAEKS are obtained. Excellent hydrophilic properties of 2MeIm-{Mo132} can help more water molecules be retained in the hybrid membrane, providing abundant carriers for proton transport and proton hopping sites to build successive hydrophilic channels, thus lowering the energy barrier, accelerating the proton migration, and significantly fostering the proton conductivity of hybrid membranes. Especially, SP-2MIMo132-5 exhibits an enhanced proton conductivity of 75 mS cm-1 at 80 °C, which is 82.9% higher than pristine SPAEKS membrane. Additionally, this membrane is suitable for application in proton exchange membrane fuel cells, and a maximum power density of 266.2 mW cm-2 can be achieved at 80 °C, which far exceeds that of pristine SPAEKS membrane (54.6 mW cm-2). This work demonstrates that polyoxometalate-based clusters can serve as excellent proton conduction sites, opening up the choice of proton conduction carriers in hybrid membrane design and providing a novel idea to manufacture high-performance PEMs.
Keywords: molybdenum clusters; polyoxometalates; proton conductivity; proton exchange membrane; sulfonated poly(aryl ether ketone sulfone).
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