Enhanced proton conduction of imidazole localized in one-dimensional Ni-metal-organic framework nanofibers

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) show possibilities to be potential candidates for proton exchange membranes (PEMs). However, the poor flexibility and processability of MOFs due to their crystalline nature limit their applications significantly. An efficient approach to overcome this limitation is to combine MOFs with polymers. In this work, novel lightweight and flexible Ni-MOFs/polyacrylonitrile nanofibers were fabricated by electrospinning. The nanofibers consisted of one-dimensional proton conduction channels for imidazole and show enhanced proton conductivity. A proton conductivity of 6.04 × 10^-5 Scm^-1 was achieved at 363 K and 90% RH. Furthermore, the proton transport dynamics of the fibers were investigated using the AC impedance technique.