Atomically thin minerals show promise as proton conducting membranes for green technologies
Researchers at The University of Manchester discovered that atomically- thin micas—the name given to a type of common mineral found in soil—are excellent proton conductors. This surprising result is important for the use of 2-D materials in applications such as fuel cells and other hydrogen-related technologies.
Previously, the Manchester researchers led by Professor Andre Geim and Dr. Marcelo Lozada-Hidalgo found that one-atom thick materials like graphene are highly permeable to protons, nuclei of hydrogen atoms. However, they also found that other 2-D materials such as molybdenum sulphide (MoS2), that were just three atoms thick, were completely impermeable to protons. These results suggested that only one-atom thick crystals could be permeable to protons.
Writing in Nature Nanotechnology, the team have shown that protons can easily permeate through few-layered micas despite the fact that they are 10 times thicker than graphene. Micas, like graphite, consist of crystal layers stacked on top of each other and can be sliced down to a single layer. The team isolated one of these layers and found that it was 100 times more permeable to protons than graphene.
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