Long-term durable solid state electrolyte membranes based on a metal–organic framework with phosphotungstic acid confined in the mesoporous cages

Abstract In this study, phosphotungstic acid-encapsulated MIL-101 (Fe) (HPW@MIL-100 (Fe)) was synthesized by the in-situ direct hydrothermal method. Due to the large mesoporous cages and small microporous windows of MIL-100 (Fe), HPW could be well loaded and confined in the cages of MIL-100 (Fe). Furthermore, novel hybrid proton exchange membranes were fabricated by incorporating HPW@MIL-100 (Fe) into sulfonated poly (arylene ether ketone sulfone) containing carboxyl groups (C-SPAEKS) matrix. The structures of MIL-100 (Fe), HPW@MIL-100 (Fe), C-SPAEKS, and hybrid membranes were characterized by XRD and FT-IR. The HPW@MIL-100 (Fe), with a large amount of phosphotungstic acid in cages, could enhance the proton conductivities of hybrid membranes. The hybrid membrane with 4% content of HPW@MIL-100 (Fe) achieved a high proton conductivity of 0.072 S cm−1 at 80 °C and 100% relative humidity, which was 1.8 times higher than that of pure C-SPAEKS (0.040 S cm−1) at the same conditions. Meanwhile, the introduced HPW@MIL-100 (Fe) fillers improved the dimensional stability of hybrid membranes. These results indicate that introduction of MIL-100 (Fe) materials loaded with HPW plays an important role in improving the comprehensive performance and this series of hybrid membranes have potential as proton exchange membranes.