Issue 37, 2022

Deconstructing proton transport through atomically thin monolayer CVD graphene membranes

Abstract

Selective proton (H+) permeation through the atomically thin lattice of graphene and other 2D materials offers new opportunities for energy conversion/storage and novel separations. Practical applications necessitate scalable synthesis via approaches such as chemical vapor deposition (CVD) that inevitably introduce sub-nanometer defects, grain boundaries and wrinkles, and understanding their influence on H+ transport and selectivity for large-area membranes is imperative but remains elusive. Using electrically driven transport of H+ and potassium ions (K+) we probe the influence of intrinsic sub-nanometer defects in monolayer CVD graphene across length-scales for the first time. At the micron scale, the areal H+ conductance of CVD graphene (∼4.5–6 mS cm−2) is comparable to that of mechanically exfoliated graphene indicating similarly high crystalline quality within a domain, albeit with K+ transport (∼1.7 mS cm−2). However, centimeter-scale Nafion|graphene|Nafion devices with several graphene domains show areal H+ conductance of ∼339 mS cm−2 and K+ conductance of ∼23.8 mS cm−2 (graphene conductance for H+ is ∼1735 mS cm−2 and for K+ it is ∼47.6 mS cm−2). Using a mathematical-transport-model and Nafion filled polycarbonate track etched supports, we systematically deconstruct the observed orders of magnitude increase in H+ conductance for centimeter-scale CVD graphene. The mitigation of defects (>1.6 nm), wrinkles and tears via interfacial polymerization results in a conductance of ∼1848 mS cm−2 for H+ and ∼75.3 mS cm−2 for K+ (H+/K+ selectivity of ∼24.5) via intrinsic sub-nanometer proton selective defects in CVD graphene. We demonstrate atomically thin membranes with significantly higher ionic selectivity than state-of-the-art proton exchange membranes while maintaining comparable H+ conductance. Our work provides a new framework to assess H+ conductance and selectivity of large-area 2D membranes and highlights the role of intrinsic sub-nanometer proton selective defects for practical applications.

Graphical abstract: Deconstructing proton transport through atomically thin monolayer CVD graphene membranes

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
04 Meur. 2022
Accepted
17 Ebr. 2022
First published
20 Ebr. 2022

J. Mater. Chem. A, 2022,10, 19797-19810

Author version available

Deconstructing proton transport through atomically thin monolayer CVD graphene membranes

P. Chaturvedi, N. K. Moehring, P. Cheng, I. Vlassiouk, M. S. H. Boutilier and P. R. Kidambi, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2022, 10, 19797 DOI: 10.1039/D2TA01737G

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