Synthesis and proton-conductive behaviour of two MOFs with covalently bonded imidazoles in the channels.

Abstract

Immobilization of imidazole molecules as proton carriers into MOFs to facilitate proton conduction is a general strategy for developing high proton conductive materials. Herein, we designed two imidazole substituted phthalic acid ligands and constructed two novel MOFs, {[Zr6(OH)16(H3L1)4]Cl8·20H2O}n [Zr-MOF; H3L1 = 2-(1H-imidazol-4-yl) methylaminoterephthalic acid] and {Gd(HCOO)(H2L2)2}n [Gd-MOF; H3L2 = 5-(1H-imidazol-4-yl)methylaminoisophthalic acid] and fully studied their porous nature, stability and water-assisted proton conduction. The resulting Zr-MOF exhibits a high proton conductivity of 1.82 × 10-2 S cm-1 at 98% RH and 80 °C, while Gd-MOF has a proton conductivity of 3.01 × 10-3 S cm-1 at 98% RH and 60 °C.