Sulfophenylated centimeter-sized graphene membrane in a direct methanol fuel cell

An ideal proton exchange membrane should only allow protons to pass and remain impermeable to fuels, as required in fuel cell applications. In methanol fuel cells, high proton conductivity enables high power density, whereas methanol crossover between the electrodes degrades the catalyst activity and lowers efficiency. In conventional polymer membranes, however, conductivity and selectivity are often antagonistic: long transport pathways are needed to achieve selectivity, but these introduce additional ionic resistance. Graphene, a two-dimensional material consisting of a single atomic layer of carbon, intrinsically addresses both requirements. Its basal plane is impermeable to water and other molecules, while still exhibiting a measurable degree of proton conductivity. Here, we show that chemical functionalization of monolayer graphene with sulfophenyl groups significantly enhances its proton transport properties. The conductance increases from 6.9 ± 1.1 to 30.9 ± 2.3 S·cm<sup>-2</sup>, while the energy barrier for proton transport is reduced to 6.9 kJ·mol<sup>-1</sup>. These findings propose functionalized graphene as an alternative to polymer membranes for electrochemical energy devices.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2025-11-27
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65507-3
Primary Topic
Fuel Cells and Related Materials
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

Funders

Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Sulfophenylated centimeter-sized graphene membrane in a direct methanol fuel cell

Ismail Eren, Thomas Heine, Lin Jiang, Haoyuan Qi et al.
Nature Communications
Fuel Cells and Related Materials
article

Sulfophenylated centimeter-sized graphene membrane in a direct methanol fuel cell

Ismail Eren, Thomas Heine, Lin Jiang, Haoyuan Qi, Ute A. Kaiser, Francesco Buda, Grégory F. Schneider, Buhang Chen, Luzhao Sun, Weizhe Zhang, Clément Maheu, Jan P. Hofmann, Hikmet Sezen, Christopher Leist, Xue Liu, Max Makurat, Thomas J. F. Kock, Dario Calvani, Yanglizhi Li, Agnieszka Kuc, Xiaoting Liu, Xinliang Feng, Andy Jiao, Guangya Jiang, Zhongfan Liu
article en

Abstract

An ideal proton exchange membrane should only allow protons to pass and remain impermeable to fuels, as required in fuel cell applications. In methanol fuel cells, high proton conductivity enables high power density, whereas methanol crossover between the electrodes degrades the catalyst activity and lowers efficiency. In conventional polymer membranes, however, conductivity and selectivity are often antagonistic: long transport pathways are needed to achieve selectivity, but these introduce additional ionic resistance. Graphene, a two-dimensional material consisting of a single atomic layer of carbon, intrinsically addresses both requirements. Its basal plane is impermeable to water and other molecules, while still exhibiting a measurable degree of proton conductivity. Here, we show that chemical functionalization of monolayer graphene with sulfophenyl groups significantly enhances its proton transport properties. The conductance increases from 6.9 ± 1.1 to 30.9 ± 2.3 S·cm<sup>-2</sup>, while the energy barrier for proton transport is reduced to 6.9 kJ·mol<sup>-1</sup>. These findings propose functionalized graphene as an alternative to polymer membranes for electrochemical energy devices.

Nature CommunicationsVol. 16(1)
Leiden University (NL), Yonsei University (KR), Universität Ulm (DE), University of Applied Sciences Leiden (NL), Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (DE), Technische Universität Darmstadt (DE), Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics (DE), Institut des Matériaux Jean Rouxel (FR), Beijing Graphene Institute (CN), Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (CN), Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (DE), Technische Universität Dresden (DE), Xi'an Jiaotong University (CN), Nantes Université (FR)
European Commission, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
Openalex Percentile: Top 63%
Fuel Cells and Related Materials
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.