New Protonated and Anhydrous Chalcogenide Glasses

摘要

While hydrated electrolytes exhibit high proton conductivities, their use is limited by significant methanol cross-over, mechanical stability and temperatures below 100 deg C. These limitations can be overcome by synthesizing anhydrous proton conducting materials. In this direction we are investigating the development of anhydrous proton conductors. Protonated (and anhydrous) chalcogenide glass and glass-ceramic materials have been prepared for the first time. These materials open a new choice for the development of fast proton conducting (FPC) electrolytes intended for electrochemical applications, fuel cells in particular. These FPC materials, with proper addition of dopants, are expected to have high proton motion and better thermal stability than polymeric electrolytes. The protonated materials were prepared in three steps. First B2S3 glass was prepared from the elements. A B2S3 melt was bubbled with H2S(g) and thioboric acid crystals (HBS2) were obtained. Finally, HBS2 was used as a precursor for the preparation of different glass and glass-ceramic materials, of varying compositions, by adding (i) B2S3/GeS2.