Switching on the proton transport pathway of a lanthanide metal-organic framework by one-pot loading of tetraethylene glycol for high proton conduction

A one-pot hydrothermal approach has been developed to introduce tetraethylene glycol (TEG) molecules into a two-dimensional (2D) layered lanthanide metal-organic framework ([Sm(H5C2P2O7)(H2O)(2)]center dot Guest, denoted SmHEDP-Guest). Through the straightforward loading of TEG, the proton conductivity of SmHEDP-TEG (1.21 x 10(-3) S cm(-1)) is increased by 3 orders of magnitude compared with its analogue SmHEDP-H2O (1.22 x 10(-6) S cm(-1)) under 100% relative humidity at room temperature. More excitingly, SmHEDP-TEG exhibits very high proton conductivity of 9.17 x 10(-2) S cm(-1), even higher than commercial Nafion, when the temperature is increased to 333 K, which is significantly higher than SmHEDP- H2O (3.38 x 10(-5) S cm(-1)). The single crystal XRD reveals that the adjacent water molecules located in the channels of SmHEDP-H2O are isolated without hydrogen bonding interactions owing to their long distances. However, interestingly, the guest TEG molecules of SmHEDP-TEG behave as hydrogen bonded connected bridges, which switch on the proton transport pathway to promote proton hopping. This discovery may provide a facile strategy to design and synthesize more promising candidates for novel proton conductors.