Metal-Organic Nanogel with Sulfonated Three-Dimensional Continuous Channels as a Proton Conductor.

Developing novel proton conductors is crucial to the electrochemical technology for energy conversion and storage. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), with a highly ordered and controllable structure, have been widely explored to prepare high-performance proton conductors. Albeit the prominent merits and great potential of the MOF-based materials such as MOF pellets or composite polymer electrolytes, constructing well-defined proton-transfer channels with much lower grain boundary resistance and more homogeneous distribution deserves extensive explorations.

Supramolecular Calix[]arenes-Intercalated Graphene Oxide Membranes for Efficient Proton Conduction.

Graphene oxide (GO) membranes with 2D interlaminar channels have triggered intensive interest as ion conductors. Incorporating abundant ion-conducting sites into GO interlayers is recognized as an effective strategy to facilitate ion conduction. Herein, we designed supramolecular compounds, -sulphonato-calix[]arenes (-SC[]As), as versatile intercalators to acquire highly conductive and robust GO membranes.

Control of Edge/in-Plane Interactions toward Robust, Highly Proton Conductive Graphene Oxide Membranes.

Graphene oxide (GO) membrane, bearing well-aligned interlayer nanochannels and well-defined physicochemical properties, promises fast proton transport. However, the deficiency of proton donor groups on the basal plane of GO and weak interlamellar interactions between the adjacent nanosheets often cause low proton conduction capability and poor water stability. Herein, we incorporate sulfonated graphene quantum dots (SGQD) into  GO membrane to solve the above dilemma synergistically controlling the edge electrostatic interaction and in-plane π-π interaction of SGQD with GO nanosheets.