Thermally triggered polyrotaxane translational motion helps proton transfer

Xiaolin Ge, Yubin He, Xian Liang, Liang Wu (), Yuan Zhu, Zhengjin Yang (), Min Hu and Tongwen Xu ()
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Xiaolin Ge: University of Science and Technology of China
Yubin He: University of Science and Technology of China
Xian Liang: University of Science and Technology of China
Liang Wu: University of Science and Technology of China
Yuan Zhu: University of Science and Technology of China
Zhengjin Yang: University of Science and Technology of China
Min Hu: University of Science and Technology of China
Tongwen Xu: University of Science and Technology of China

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Synthetic polyelectrolytes, capable of fast transporting protons, represent a challenging target for membrane engineering in so many fields, for example, fuel cells, redox flow batteries, etc. Inspired by the fast advance in molecular machines, here we report a rotaxane based polymer entity assembled via host–guest interaction and prove that by exploiting the thermally triggered translational motion (although not in a controlled manner) of mechanically bonded rotaxane, exceptionally fast proton transfer can be fulfilled at an external thermal input. The relative motion of the sulfonated axle to the ring in rotaxane happens at ~60 °C in our cases and because of that a proton conductivity (indicating proton transfer rate) of 260.2 mS cm−1, which is much higher than that in the state-of-the-art Nafion, is obtained at a relatively low ion-exchange capacity (representing the amount of proton transfer groups) of 0.73 mmol g−1.

Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04733-4

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