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Enhanced proton conductivity promoted by self-assembly of aqueous 4-(1-ethyldecyl) benzenesulfonic lyotropic liquid crystal

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Abstract

Acidic lyotropic liquid crystals (LLCs) have an advantage in constructing continuous proton conduction pathways owing to the well-defined structures, but the contribution of LLC to proton conductivity is hard to determine for the water-dependent nature of LLC. An aqueous 4-(1-ethyldecyl) benzenesulfonic acid solution, exhibiting a lamellar LLC phase at low hydration levels and becoming a micellar solution at high hydration levels, is employed to investigate structure-dependent proton conductivity. Electrochemical impedance spectrum (EIS) characterization reveals that the proton conductivity reaches a maximum of 173 mS cm−1 in the LLC phase. Owing to the self-assembling, the degree of dissociation of -SO3H tends to stabilize at 0.26 with increasing hydration levels. An integrated rate constant Ki is derived to evaluate the effect of self-assembly on proton conductivity, which reaches 1.90 × 107 mS cm5 mol−2 in the LLC but decreases to 1.23 × 107 mS cm5 mol−2 in the micellar solution. The single fuel cell fabricated from the LLC supported membrane exhibits a peak power density of 23.7 mW cm−2, confirming the enhanced proton conductivity under actual working conditions. The results quantitatively unveil the effect of aqueous self-assembly on proton conduction and offer a guide for achieving high conductivities in hydrated electrolytes with well-defined architectures.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, No. 24 South Section 1, Yihuan Road, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Jie You, Jie Luo, Shuai Tan, Caihong Wang & Yong Wu

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  1. Jie You
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You, J., Luo, J., Tan, S. et al. Enhanced proton conductivity promoted by self-assembly of aqueous 4-(1-ethyldecyl) benzenesulfonic lyotropic liquid crystal. Ionics 27, 4307–4314 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11581-021-04197-5

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