Protic Ionic Liquid-Derived Coordination Polymer Glass for Anhydrous Proton Conductor with Moldability

Abstract

Herein, we focused on coordination polymer (CP) glass as a hybrid, soft electrolyte to meet these criteria. We applied a protic ionic liquid of which components work also as bridging ligand to construct CP structure with Zn<sup>2+</sup> ions. The structural analysis of the CP glass reveals that network formation results in enhancement of the properties of proton conductivity and viscoelasticity. The CP glass features a high anhydrous proton conductivity (<i>σ</i> = 13.3 mS cm<sup>−1</sup> at 120 °C) and high transport number of proton (0.94). Fabricated fuel cell with this CP glass membrane exhibits a high open circuit voltage (0.96 V) and a power density (0.15 W cm<sup>−2</sup>) under dry conditions at 120 °C.