Hybrid Liquid-Crystalline Electrolytes with High-Temperature-Stable Channels for Anhydrous Proton Conduction

作者：Chai, Shengchao; Xu, Fengrui; Zhang, Rongchun; Wang, Xiaoliang; Zhai, Liang; Li, Xiang; Qian, Hu-Jun; Wu, Lixin; Li, Haolong^*

来源：Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2021, 143(50): 21433-21442.

DOI：10.1021/jacs.1c11884

• METAL-OXIDE CLUSTERS
• BUILDING-BLOCKS
• ORGANIC HYBRID
• NANOCOMPOSITES
• NANOCHANNELS
• VESICLES
• POLYMER
• WATER

Modern electrochemical and electronic devices require advanced electrolytes. Liquid crystals have emerged as promising electrolyte candidates due to their good fluidity and long-range order. However, the mesophase of liquid crystals is variable upon heating, which limits their applications as high-temperature electrolytes, e.g., implementing anhydrous proton conduction above 100 degrees C. Here, we report a highly stable thermotropic liquid-crystalline electrolyte based on the electrostatic self-assembly of polyoxometalate (POM) clusters and zwitterionic polymer ligands. These electrolytes can form a well-ordered mesophase with sub-10 nm POM-based columnar domains, attributed to the dynamic rearrangement of polymer ligands on POM surfaces. Notably, POMs can serve as both electrostatic cross-linkers and high proton conductors, which enable the columnar domains to be high-temperature-stable channels for anhydrous proton conduction. These nanochannels can maintain constant columnar structures in a wide temperature range from 90 to 160 degrees C. This work demonstrates the unique role of POMs in developing high-performance liquid-crystalline electrolytes, which can provide a new route to design advanced ion transport systems for energy and electronic applications.

• 单位
  吉林大学; 南京大学