title: Decoupled Ion Transport in a Protein-Based Solid Ion Conductor.
abstract: Simultaneous achievement of good electrochemical and mechanical properties is crucial for practical applications of solid ion conductors. Conventional polymer conductors suffer from low conductivity, low transference number, and deteriorated mechanical properties with the enhancement of conductivity, resulting from the coupling between ion transport and polymer movement. Here we present a successful fabrication and fundamental understanding of a high performance soy protein-based solid conductor. The conductor shows ionic conductivity of ∼10-5S/cm, transference number of 0.94, and modulus of 1 GPa at room temperature, and still remains flexible and easily processable. Molecular simulations indicate that this is due to appropriate manipulation of the protein structures for effective exploitation of protein functional groups. A decoupled transport mechanism, which is able to explain all results, is proposed. The new insights can be utilized to provide guidelines for design, optimization, and fabrication of high performance biosolid conductors.
authors.affiliation: School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University , Pullman, Washington 99164, United States.
authors.forename: Xuewei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University , Pullman, Washington 99164, United States.
authors.forename: Yead
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jewel
authors.affiliation: School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University , Pullman, Washington 99164, United States.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University , Pullman, Washington 99164, United States.
authors.forename: Jin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, Washington State University , Pullman, Washington 99164, United States.
authors.forename: Wei-Hong
authors.initials: WH
authors.lastname: Zhong
mesh_terms: D017136:Ion Transport / Q000502:physiology*; D007477:Ions / Q000737:chemistry*; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D007477:Ions; D011506:Proteins