Polyelectrolytes have attracted considerable attention in the field of all-solid-state batteries and fuel cells. The topochemical synthesis of ionic polymeric or polyelectrolyte single crystals (PSCs), however, remains elusive and particularly challenging because of the strong Coulombic repulsive interactions which operate during the self-assembly of a pair of cationic or anionic appendages from two ionic monomers.
Disclosed herein are supramolecular compositions, polyelectrolyte polymers, and polyelectrolyte crystals for proton conductivity. Also disclosed herein are method of making and using the compositions, polymers, and crystals described herein.
One aspect of the invention is a supramolecular composition. The supramolecular composition may comprise an ordered arrangement of a plurality of organic ions and a plurality of counterions. The organic ions comprising a molecular hub and arms extending therefrom, wherein the arms comprise a polymerizable moiety.
Another aspect of the invention is a polyelectrolyte polymer molecule. The polymer may comprise a chain formed from the polymerization of a plurality of organic ions. Each organic ion may comprise a molecular hub and arms extending therefrom, wherein the arms comprise a polymerizable moiety.
Another aspect of the invention is a polyelectrolyte crystal. The crystal may comprise a plurality of the polymer molecules described herein and further comprising a plurality of counterions.
Another aspect of the invention is a method of making any of the polymers or crystals described herein. The method may comprise providing any of the supramolecular compositions described herein, irradiating the composition for an effective time with an effective frequency to induce polymerization of the polymerizable moiety, thereby forming the polyelectrolyte polymer or the polyelectrolyte crystal.
Non-limiting embodiments of the present invention will be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying figures, which are schematic and are not intended to be drawn to scale. In the figures, each identical or nearly identical component illustrated is typically represented by a single numeral. For purposes of clarity, not every component is labeled in every figure, nor is every component of each embodiment of the invention shown where illustration is not necessary to allow those of ordinary skill in the art to understand the invention.
Here, we present a rational design for PSCs. Topochemical polymerization, a lattice-controlled crystal-to-crystal synthetic protocol, allows for the preparation of macroscopically sized single-crystalline polymers, suitable for single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD). This solid-state technique not only provides the accurate chemical composition but also affords detailed bonding information, thereby offering guidelines for the further development of materials with finely tuned properties. The high crystallinity of these materials can also enhance performance-based applications.
The schemes and compositions disclosed herein provide for the efficient preparation of PSCs on the basis of a selection of appendages in ionic monomer molecules. These appendages or arms dictate an ensemble of weak interactions and spatial alignments, by combining the principles of supramolecular chemistry and macromolecular science.
One aspect of the invention is a supramolecular composition. The supramolecular composition may comprise an ordered arrangement of a plurality of organic ions and a plurality of counterions. The organic ions comprising a molecular hub and polymerizable arms extending therefrom. The polymerizable arms are capable of interacting with each other through various noncovalent interactions, such as hydrogen bonding and π-π interactions. Conformational flexibility of the polymerizable arms around the molecular hub provide the organic ion the ability to adopt a stable conformation in three dimensions and preorganize discrete reaction sites into an infinite and highly ordered supramolecular network.
The molecular hub provides a focal point from which the arms can extend. Some or all of the arms extending from the molecular hub may comprise a polymerizable arms. Suitably, the organic ions adopt an ordered arrangement where the polymerizable moieties between neighboring organic ions may react with one another thereby forming polyelectrolyte polymer molecules and polyelectrolyte crystals. Each of the polymerizable arms may comprise a strain-releasing group, a charge-bearing aryl, a polymerizable moiety, and a second aryl.
The polymerizable moiety may be any moiety capable of participating in a polymerization reaction. Suitably the polymerizable moiety is capable of participating in a cycloaddition reaction, such as a [2+2] cycloaddition. Exemplary polymerizable moieties include, without limitation, ethylene, acetelyene, or diacetylene.
The strain-releasing group may be any chemical group that can provide conformational flexibility or cushion the strain released from conformational changes that take place during solid-state reactions and so prevent fragmentation of the crystals. In some embodiments, the strain-releasing group is a C1-C3 alkylene, that may be optionally substituted or unsubstituted. —CH2— is used as a strain-releasing group in the Examples, but the strain-releasing also be —CH2CH2— or —CH2CH2CH2—.
As used herein aryl is art-recognized and refers to a carbocyclic aromatic group. Representative aryl groups include phenyl, pyrindinyl, and the like. Unless specified otherwise, the aromatic ring may be substituted at one or more ring positions. In certain other embodiments, the aromatic ring is not substituted, i.e., it is unsubstituted. A charge-bearing aryl is an aromatic group that can bear be positively or negatively charged such as a pyrindinyl or the like.
In some embodiments, the polymerizable moiety may be positioned between pyrindinyl rings or between a pyrindinyl and a phenyl ring. Exemplary arms comprise
The organic ion may comprise two or more polymerizable arms capable of preparing the supramolecular composition where at least some of the polymerizable moieties are capable of reacting with one another. Suitably the organic ion has 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 polymerizable arms. The charge of the organic ion may be proportional to the number of polymerizable arms bonded to the molecular hub, but that need not be the case. Suitably an organic ion having 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 arms may have a 2+, 3+, 4+, 5+, or 6+ charge, respectively.
In some embodiments, the organic ion comprises one or more additional arms that are incapable of polymerizing. In some embodiments, the additional arms incapable of polymerizing may be a C1-C4 alkyl, that may be optionally substituted or unsubstituted. The organic ions referred to in the examples have methyl arms.
Suitably the molecular hub may be selected to allow for the organic ions to adopt stable confirmations for polymerization. Suitably, the molecular hub may a benzene ring
When the molecular hub is a benzene ring, some or all of the carbon atoms of the benzene ring may be covalently bonded with a polymerizable arm. Suitably, when some of the carbon atoms of the benzene ring are not covalently bonded with a polymerizable arm, the carbon atoms of the benzene ring may be bonded to hydrogen or a C1-C4 alkyl, such as methyl.
The counterion allows for the formation of the supramolecular assembly, polyelectrolyte polymers, and polyelectrolyte crystals described herein. Suitably the counterion is BF4−, a halo, such as Cl− or Br−, or a hexafluoride, such as PF6− or AsF6−.
The present technology will be further described by way of example with the preparation of supramolecular composition, polyelectrolyte polymers, and polyelectrolyte crystals using the tricationic organic ion
Self-complementary shape and charge distribution interactions between pyridinium-based polymerizable arms that may involve the repulsive monomeric units allow for optimal proximity for topochemical reactions (
Synthesis and single-crystal structure of the monomer. The monomer molecule was synthesized (Scheme 1) on a two-gram scale with no chromatographic purification in 80% yield in two steps from the commercially available starting materials, 1,3,5-tris(bromomethyl)-2,4,6-trimethylbenzene and (E)-1,2-di(pyridin-4-yl)ethene, followed by the counterion exchange with NH4BF4. The resulting monomer 1•3BF4 is soluble in polar organic solvents.
Colorless plate-like single crystals of 1•3BF4, suitable for SCXRD, were obtained by slow vapor diffusion of iPr2O into a MeCN solution of the salt. SCXRD Analysis reveals that adopts (
Single-crystal-to-single-crystal photopolymerizations. We conducted topochemical reactions on monomer single crystals and monitored the polymerizations directly by in-situ SCXRD. Irradiation of crystals with ultraviolet light (λ=365 nm) at 100 K for 3 h resulted in the formation of partially polymerized samples. Prolonging the irradiation on these crystals for 9 h under the same conditions led to the final crystalline polymers. Both the intermediates and final crystalline polymers share the same C2/c space group with the monomer, while the unit-cell parameters are slightly different. As the polymerization proceeds, unit-cell parameters a and b decrease slightly, while c increases slightly, thereby leading (Table 1) to an increase in the overall cell volume.
SCXRD Analysis of the intermediate crystal reveals (
The alternatively aligned polymer chains are held together tightly by BF4− counterions entering into multiple electrostatic interactions to form (
The polymerizations can also be triggered by sunlight. Crystals of the monomer, when left outdoors under sunlight for 2 days, became insoluble in all common organic solvents. The presence of ionic polymers in these samples was also verified by 41 NMR spectroscopy (
The optical microscopic and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) images (
Inspired by the top-down delamination of bulk graphite, which produces40 2D monolayer graphene, liquid-phase exfoliation has been explored to break down 1D9 and 2D10,11,41 crystalline materials. In order to achieve a thorough exfoliation (
The intrinsic mechanical properties and environmental stabilities to heat, light, etc. are important characteristics of polymers. The hardness (H) and the Young's modulus (E) of the monomer and polymer were measured (
Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements on the polymer samples showed (
Given the ordered 1D ionic channels, high stability towards heat and concentrated acids, we investigated the proton conductivity of the polymer using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The Nyquist plots show (
In summary, a strategy for the quantitative synthesis of polyelectrolyte single crystals with precise control over composition, regioregularity, stereoregularity, and tacticity, from a tricationic monomer is provided. The positively charged polymer chains are aligned periodically and held tightly together by multiple ionic interactions with tetrafluoroborate counterions to form 2D monolayer sheets in lamellar crystals. A gram-scale preparation, relying on ultraviolet/sunlight-triggered polymerization, has allowed us to synthesize enough of the polymer to be able to investigate its physicochemical properties and speculate about its potential practical applications. We have demonstrated that the highly ordered polycationic structure endows this charged polymer with valuable properties. High proton conductivities, in combination with the remarkable mechanical properties and the high thermal stabilities of these polyelectrolytes, point to their application as proton-conducting materials.
Unless otherwise specified or indicated by context, the terms “a”, “an”, and “the” mean “one or more.” For example, “a molecule” should be interpreted to mean “one or more molecules.”
As used herein, “about”, “approximately,” “substantially,” and “significantly” will be understood by persons of ordinary skill in the art and will vary to some extent on the context in which they are used. If there are uses of the term which are not clear to persons of ordinary skill in the art given the context in which it is used, “about” and “approximately” will mean plus or minus ≤10% of the particular term and “substantially” and “significantly” will mean plus or minus >10% of the particular term.
As used herein, the terms “include” and “including” have the same meaning as the terms “comprise” and “comprising.” The terms “comprise” and “comprising” should be interpreted as being “open” transitional terms that permit the inclusion of additional components further to those components recited in the claims. The terms “consist” and “consisting of” should be interpreted as being “closed” transitional terms that do not permit the inclusion additional components other than the components recited in the claims. The term “consisting essentially of” should be interpreted to be partially closed and allowing the inclusion only of additional components that do not fundamentally alter the nature of the claimed subject matter.
All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”) provided herein, is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention unless otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element as essential to the practice of the invention.
All references, including publications, patent applications, and patents, cited herein are hereby incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each reference were individually and specifically indicated to be incorporated by reference and were set forth in its entirety herein.
Preferred aspects of this invention are described herein, including the best mode known to the inventors for carrying out the invention. Variations of those preferred aspects may become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the foregoing description. The inventors expect a person having ordinary skill in the art to employ such variations as appropriate, and the inventors intend for the invention to be practiced otherwise than as specifically described herein. Accordingly, this invention includes all modifications and equivalents of the subject matter recited in the claims appended hereto as permitted by applicable law. Moreover, any combination of the above-described elements in all possible variations thereof is encompassed by the invention unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.
All commercially available reagents were used as received. Anhydrous MeCN was prepared by solvent drying system. Infrared spectra (IR) were recorded using a Nexus 870 spectrometer. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra were recorded on Bruker Avance 500 spectrometers, with working frequencies of 500 MHz for 1H and 125 MHz for 13C nuclei, respectively. Chemical shifts were reported in ppm relative to the signals corresponding to the residual non-deuterated solvents (CD3CN: δH=1.94 and δC=118.3 ppm). Abbreviations are used in the description of NMR data as follows: chemical shift (6, ppm), multiplicity (s=singlet, d=doublet), coupling constant (J, Hz). High-resolution mass spectra (ESI-HRMS) were measured on a Finnigan LCQ iontrap mass spectrometer. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD) data were collected on a Bruker APEX-II CCD diffractometer. Powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD) patterns were measured on an STOE-STADIMP powder diffractometer (Cu-Kα1 radiation, λ=1.54056 Å). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images were collected on a Hitachi SU8030 SEM. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images were performed on a JEOL ARM300F GrandARM. Thermogravimetric analyses (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) were performed on a TGA/DCS 1 system. Solid-state cross-polarization magic angle spinning (CPMAS) 13C NMR spectroscopy was recorded on a 400 MHz Bruker Avance III HD system. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was performed on a SPID Bruker FastScan AFM. Nanoindentation was performed on a Hysitron 950 Tribolndenter. Chanzon High Power Led Chips (UV 365 nm/900 mA/DC 9V-11V/10 W) were used for the irradiation experiments. Xenon Light Source 300 W Monochromatic Light (MAX 350) with a 254 nm filter to study depolymerizations.
Photopolymerization for in-situ single-crystal X-ray diffractometer: One single crystal of monomer 1•3BF4 was selected, and a full set of diffraction data was collected in order to determine the structure. This crystal was irradiated—a 10 W, 365 nm LED, about 1.5 cm from the crystal—directly on the goniometer pin at 100 K for 3 h and another set of data collection afforded the structure of intermediate. Then, the same crystal was irradiated for another 6 h at 100 K in order to afford the final polymer.
Gram-scale photopolymerizations: One gram of monomer crystals was obtained from a 1:10 mixture of MeCN and iPr2O. The freshly prepared crystals were suspended in the mother liquor and kept in a 30-mL glass vial. The vial was placed closely under an LED. The crystals were irradiated with a 365-nm LED light for 9 h. The vial was shaken gently every hour in order to make sure the crystals were being irradiated homogeneously. The whole procedure was carried out in a fume hood. Polymerizations were monitored by 1H NMR spectroscopy, IR and CPMAS 13C NMR spectroscopies further identified the final products. The yield was calculated using the equation, Y=Mp/Mm×100%, where Y is the yield, Mp is the weight of the single-crystalline polymer, and Mm is the weight of the monomer.
Computational electronic and mechanical properties: Density functional theory (DFT) was used to calculate the electronic properties of the polymer using the B3LYP-D3 functional and all-electron basis sets similar to our previous work on supramolecular and framework materials49,25. The electronic band gap of the ionic polymer crystal is predicted to be 3.72 eV. The anisotropic Young's moduli of the polymer were computed using a composite method (HF-3C), and the 3D representation is provided in
Proton conductivities: Crystalline polymers were crushed into powders and drop-cast (
1•3BF4: A solution of 1,3,5-tris(bromomethyl)-2,4,6-trimethylbenzene (800 mg, 3 mmol) in dry CH2Cl2 (20 mL) and MeCN (5 mL) was added dropwise during 12 h by syringe to a solution of (E)-1,2-di(pyridin-4-yl)ethene (8.20 g, 45 mmol) in anhydrous CH2Cl2 (30 mL) and MeCN (60 mL) under an N2 atmosphere. The flask was wrapped with aluminium foil and the mixture was stirred continuously for 24 h at room temperature. The resulting white precipitate was collected by filtration, washed with CH2Cl2 (3×50 mL) and MeCN (3×50 mL), and dried. The precipitate was dissolved in H2O (1.5 L). A solution of NH4BF4 (6.0 g) in H2O (20 mL) was added to the above-mentioned solution of the monomer. The resulting white precipitate was collected by filtration, washed with H2O (3×50 mL), and dried. The remaining solid was recrystallized from MeCN and iPr2O to afford 1•3BF4 as a colorless crystalline solid (2.32 g, 2.4 mmol) in 80% yield. 1H NMR (500 MHz, CD3CN, 298 K) δH=8.68 (d, J=6.1 Hz, 12H), 8.51 (d, J=6.9 Hz, 12H), 8.13 (d, J=7.0 Hz, 12H), 7.76 (d, J=16.5 Hz, 12H), 7.62-7.55 (m, 18H), 5.87 (s, 12H), 2.27 (s, 18H); 13C NMR (125 MHz, CD3CN, 298 K) δC=17.2, 58.9, 122.3, 125.9, 127.6, 129.3, 139.4, 142.6, 144.0, 144.8, 151.3, 153.9; ESI-HRMS Calcd for C48H45F12B3N6: m/z=879.3759 [M-BF4]+, 396.1862 [M-2BF4]2+; found: 879.3772 [M-BF4]+, 396.1874 [M-2BF4]2+.
Single crystals of 1•3BF4 were obtained after only one day by slow vapor diffusion of iPr2O into a MeCN solution. In order to monitor the polymerization by in-situ single-crystal X-ray diffractometer, one single crystal was selected and mounted in inert oil and transferred to the cold N2 gas stream of a Bruker Kappa APEX CCD area detector diffractometer. The crystal was kept at 100 K during the data collection. After a set of data collection was finished, the same crystal was irradiated directly on the diffractometer under 100 K for 3 h to afford the intermediate crystal. This crystal was kept at 100 K during the data collection. After this set of data collection was finished, the same crystal was irradiated for another 6 h under 100 K to afford the final polymeric crystal. This crystal was kept at 100 K for the data collection. Even though, as the polymerization proceeded, the quality of the single crystal decreased. Both the single-crystal structures of the intermediate and the polymer, however, could be solved. Considering that we are dealing with a challenging single-crystal-to-single-crystal polymerization, it should be acceptable that the quality of polymer crystal cannot compete with the standard compounds, which are obtained by well-known procedures. Using Olex25, the above data were resolved with the ShelXT6 structure solution program and all the structures (the monomer, the intermediate and the final polymer) were refined with the ShelXL7 package using least-squares minimization.
The crystallographic information, structural parameters for 1•3BF4 monomer, intermediate crystal, and 2•nPF6 polymer are as follows.
1•3BF4 Monomer Crystal Data for C48H47.67B3F12N6O1.33 (M=990.35 g/mol): monoclinic, space group C12/c1 (no. 15), a=58.143(2), b=11.9245(5), c=15.4738(7) A, α=90, β=102.308(3), γ=90°, V=10481.8(8) Å3, Z=8, T=100.02 K, μ(Cu Kα)=0.908 mm−1, Dcalc=1.255 g/cm3. The final R1 was 0.1079 (I>2σ(I)) and wR2 was 0.3034 (all data).
Intermediate Crystal Data for C96H90B6F24N12O3 (M=1980.65 g/mol): monoclinic, space group C12/c1 (no. 15), a=90, β=103.731(2), γ=90°, V=10526.6(5) Å3, Z=4, T=100 K, μ(Cu Kα)=0.907 mm−1, Dcalc=1.250 g/cm3. The final R1 was 0.1469 (I>2σ(I)) and wR2 was 0.4541 (all data).
2•nBF4 Polymer Crystal Data for C48H45B3F12N6O1 (M=982.33 g/mol): monoclinic, space group C12/c1 (no. 15), a=57.282(7), b=11.7334(15), c=16.2714(18) Å, α=90, β=104.674(7), γ=90°, V=10579.5(5) Å3, Z=8, T=102(2) K, μ(Cu Kα)=0.891 mm−1, Dcalc=1.233 g/cm3. The final R1 was 0.1698 (I>2σ(I)) and wR2 was 0.4877 (all data).
Freshly prepared crystals were suspended in their mother liquor and kept in a 3-mL quartz cuvette. The cuvette was sealed and placed on the garden under the sunlight at Northwestern University, Evanston. The crystals were irradiated from 10 am to 4 pm on July 23 and 24, 2019 (6 hours per day). The cuvette was shaken gently every hour in order to make sure the crystals were irradiated homogeneously. Four 6-mg aliquots of crystals were taken out at different time intervals (1, 3, 6, and 9 h) and dissolved in CD3CN for 1H NMR spectroscopy and PXRD. The final product was also identified by 41 NMR spectroscopy and PXRD.
One gram of monomer crystals were grown in the mixture of MeCN and iPr2O (1:10). The freshly prepared crystals were suspended in their mother liquor and kept in a 30-mL glass vial. The vial was placed closely under the LED, which was connected with a cooling fan. The crystals were irradiated with 365 nm light for 9 h at room temperature. The vial was shaken gently every hour in order to make sure the crystals were irradiated homogeneously. Seven 3-mg aliquots of crystals were taken out at different time intervals (0.25, 0.5, 1, 3, 6, and 9 h) and dissolved in CD3CN for recording 1H NMR spectra. The final product was also identified by CPMAS 13C NMR spectroscopy and IR spectrophotometry.
In order to prepare samples with appropriate sizes for (HR)TEM imaging, the polymeric crystals were partially exfoliated. The crystals were stirred at room temperature for 1 h and sonicated for 30 min in MeCN. Then, they were deposited on a Cu grid.
Hardness and Young's moduli were measured on a Hysitron 950 Tribolndenter with a Berkovich indenter (radius 100 nm). A large single crystal of monomer 1•3BF4 was first mounted onto stainless steel atomic force microscopy specimen disks by epoxy (J-B Kwik) with the (001) plane facing up. For all measurements, the loading and unloading rate were kept at about 50 μN/s and before unloading, the indenter was held at constant load (500 μN) for 10 s. The same crystal was checked before and after polymerization. The data were analyzed using standard Oliver and Pharr analysis to extract the reduced moduli and hardness. The out-of-plane Young's moduli of the materials can be further derived with a Young's modulus E of 1141 GPa and Poisson's ratio v of 0.07 for the diamond tip and v=0.3 for monomer and polymer crystals. For each type of sample, two crystals were prepared and 17 indentations were performed on each crystal. The reported values for each type of sample were averaged by all 34 measurements.
The anisotropic single-crystal properties of the ionic polymer crystal were computed using first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculations performed using the periodic CRYSTAL17 code8. The B3LYP hybrid exchange-correlation functional9-11 was used with a semiempirical dispersion correction accounting for two-body and three-body contributions (B3LYP-D3)12, and the geometry optimization was compared with another commonly used DFT functional, PBE-D312-14. Each DFT calculation was performed with all-electron atom-centered Gaussian-type basis sets of double-zeta quality, similar to previous work on the dielectric and electronic properties of other supramolecular and framework materials15,16. The crystalline orbitals were considered as linear combinations of Bloch functions (BF) and evaluated using a regular three-dimensional (3D) mesh in reciprocal space. Each BF was constructed from local atomic orbitals (AOs), consisting of linear combinations of Gaussian-type functions (GTF). The all-electron basis sets contained a total of 9,528 basis functions, corresponding to 3,984 electrons spread over 3,384 shells per unit cell for the polymer crystal.
Due to the structural disorder of the anions present in the experimentally obtained CIF, the symmetry was reduced in the geometry optimization to allow for the lowest energy ordered structure to be obtained. The geometry optimization resulted in symmetry reduction from the C2/c (15) to P2/c (13) space group. The lattice parameters and atomic coordinates of the ionic polymer crystal were optimized, while maintaining the P2/c (13) space group symmetry. The optimization was considered to have converged when the maximum and root-mean-square (RMS) gradient, and the maximum and RMS atomic displacements were simultaneously below 4.5×10−4, 3.0×10−4, 1.8×10−3 and 1.2×10−3 a.u., respectively.
The static dielectric constant and refractive index of the ionic polymer crystal were calculated analytically via a Coupled-Perturbed Hartree-Fock/Kohn-Sham (CPHF/CPKS) approach with the B3LYP-D3 functional. The CPHF/CPKS approach involved calculating the polarizability and dielectric tensors, as reported in Ref.15. The electronic band gap of the ionic polymer crystal is predicted to be 3.72 eV using the B3LYP-D3 functional, and the values of the other anisotropic properties are summarized in Table 2.
For the calculation of the anisotropic Young's moduli of the ionic polymer crystal, reported in Table 3 and
Summarized in Table 2 are the comparisons of the optimized lattice parameters calculated from DFT and HF-3C (for ideal crystalline structures) with the experimental values.
Samples were mechanically ground into sufficiently small particle sizes. Impedance data were recorded by Autolab PGSTAT128N between 100 kHz and 0.1 Hz at 20 mV amplitude, and analysized by Nova 2.0 software. A simple equivalent circuit was used here to simulate the Nyquist plots. Experiments were carried out in a home-made humidity control chamber with N2 atmosphere. Before each measurement, the sample was incubated for 2 h at different humidities to reach a stable status.
The two-terminal devices used in EIS measurements were fabricated on glass. Prior to device fabrication, the substrates were cleaned by sequential sonication in Me2CO and iPrOH. Then, a 10 nm Titanium adhesion layer overlaid with a 100 nm gold was electron-beam evaporated onto the clean substrates through a shadow mask. The dimensions of the paired electrodes were 2.5 cm wide by 2.0 cm long with an inter-electrode separation of 50 μm. The devices were completed by dropping cast the bulk polymer powders suspended in MeCN solution directly onto the electrode patterns, and the resulting films were allowed to dry in air overnight.
A Constant Phase Element (CPE) was used to describe the non-ideal interface capacitance, Rb and Cb represent the resistance and capacitance of the sample, respectively. (
The conductivity (σ) of the sample is calculated with the equation below:
σ=L/RbA
where S and L are the cross-sectional area and thickness of the sample, respectively, and Rb is the value of resistance, which was obtained from the impedance plots.
Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of water structure were conducted using the RASPA software package19. The unit cell from the experimental crystal structure was expanded to a 1×3×2 super-cell as the simulation box to satisfy the minimum image convention. In 6 different simulations, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, or 60 water molecules per unit cell were added to the box by configuration-biased Monte Carlo insertions20 prior to the MD simulations. Then, 100 ps of MD in the canonical (NVT) ensemble at 298 K were conducted in each simulation in which the water molecules were allowed to move while the polymer and the counterions were held fixed. In all simulations, the Lennard-Jones parameters for the polymer and counterions were taken from the DREIDING force field21, while the water molecules were described by the TIP4P model22. The partial charges of the polymer and counterion atoms were derived using the QEq method23. The long-range van der Waals interactions were truncated at 12.8 Å with analytical tail corrections, while the long-range electrostatics were calculated using the Ewald summation.
This application claims benefit of priority to U.S. Patent Application No. 62/969,425, filed Feb. 3, 2020, the contents of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/US2021/016427 | 2/3/2021 | WO |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62969425 | Feb 2020 | US |