High anhydrous proton conductivity and a smart proton transportation approach of a sulfate coordination polymer

Abstract

We successfully synthesized a one-dimensional cobalt sulfate coordinating polymer, whose simple hydrogen bond web structure facilitated the analysis of the proton transfer process. At 175 °C, without humidity, the conductivity is 0.0311 S cm⁻¹, which exceeds those of most of the organic inorganic hybrid materials under anhydrous conditions (world record rank 8). Based on its crystal structure and theoretical calculations, the subversive proton conduction pathway was inferred clearly. We, for the first time, found that the proton smartly chose the path with a lower energy barrier but not the one with short distance to transport avoiding short circuit.