Inorganic proton-conducting gel glass/porous alumina nanocomposite

A novel fast proton-conducting silicophosphate-HClO4 (SiP-HClO4) gel glass and SiP-HClO4–alumina composite are successfully fabricated. The fabricated inorganic composites show good thermal stability and stable conductivity up to 140 °C, which indicates a high proton conductivity of over 2.6 × 10−2 S cm−1. The high conductivity of the composites is attributed to the fast proton-conducting property of the three-dimensional SiP-HClO4 gel glass network which contains both trapped acid ions (ClO4−) as a proton donor and strongly hydrogen-bonded hydroxyl groups combined to P–O–Si bonds as proton conduction paths.