State-independent ionic conductivity
Liquids lend themselves to high ionic conductivities because of their molecular-level positional and orientational disorder, which enables the free movement of ions. However, there is an unavoidable steep drop in ionic conductivity upon phase transition from a fluid state to the more ordered solid state. Here, we describe organic salts that maintain the same ionic conductivity mechanism across transitions between three states of matter, from an initial isotropic liquid to a liquid crystalline state and then to a crystalline solid. We achieved this property by minimizing the ion-pairing interactions between mobile ions and highly diffuse counterions that assemble in a stepwise manner to preserve conformational flexibility across phase transitions. This state-independent ionic conductivity opens up opportunities to exploit liquid-like ionic conductivity in organic solids.
Authors
- Alyssa‐Jennifer Avestro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4366-2800)
- Yulong Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7642-1096)
- Chris Groves (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2402-1618)
- Silvio Poppe
- Paul R. McGonigal (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8538-7579)
- Stephen J. Cowling (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4771-9886)
- Joyce Barclay (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9636-6595)
- Jiří Šturala (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8113-0709)
- José N. Canongia Lopes (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4483-6294)
- Karina Shimizu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2454-1795)
- J.C. Jones (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2310-0800)
- Adilson A. Freitas (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6119-9602)
- Michal Kohout (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1447-4453)
- Joseph Williamson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1557-5275)
- H. Litt
Institutions
- University of Leeds (GB)
- University of Lisbon (PT)
- Durham University (GB)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- University of York (GB)
- Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (DE)
- University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague (CZ)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2025-12-18
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adk0786
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Liquid Crystal Research Advancements
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.85