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

• Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society Vol. 143; no. 50; pp. 21433 - 21442
• Main Authors: Chai, Shengchao, Xu, Fengrui, Zhang, Rongchun, Wang, Xiaoliang, Zhai, Liang, Li, Xiang, Qian, Hu-Jun, Wu, Lixin, Li, Haolong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 22-12-2021
• ISSN: 0002-7863; 1520-5126
• DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c11884

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 °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 °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.