QENS study of Enhanced Proton Diffusion in Gas-loaded Porous Materials

Porous materials showing high proton conductivity have attracted increasing interest in the development of proton-exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) to promote the delivery of global ‘Net Zero’ target. We recently developed a robust porous material (STA-12Ni), which shows high proton conductivities of 3.36×10-2 and 5.46 × 10-3 S cm-1, upon loading of NO2 and SO2, respectively, at 90 °C and 99% relative humidity (RH). This is an unprecedented protocol to improve proton conductivity and also capture air-pollutants simultaneously. The conductivity exceeds that of pristine STA-12(Ni) by 1000 times, approaching that of commercial Nafion polymers. We request 6 days on IRIS to study the motions of active protons within these MOFs, aiming to uncover the nature of the proton conductivity by analysing variable temperature QENS data.