Advanced Materials, Vol.20, No.7, 1274-1274, 2008
Heterogeneous doping of a weak covalent electrolyte: Proton conductivity enhancement of imidazole by admixture of oxide particles
The proton conductivity of composites comprising dispersions of various types of nanometer-sized oxide particles in pure imidazole is investigated. The composite materials show significantly enhanced (up to a maximum of ten times in the case of sZrO(2)) ionic conductivity compared to pure imidazole. The reason is the formation of a space-charge layer on the oxide surface, as a consequence of adsorptive interaction.