Metal-organic frameworks-based hybrid proton exchange membranes could

combine the advantages of organic and inorganic materials with excellent chemical

and physical stability and good proton conductivity. In this work, two kinds of functionalized

MOFs were synthesized based on MOF-801. Imidazole@MOF-801 was prepared by the

impregnation method, which mainly incorporated free imidazole molecules into

the pores of the MOF-801. Imidazole-MOF-801 was obtained by in-situ method,

which imidazole further acted as non-structural ligands to coordinate to the

zirconium metal sites. Furthermore, the hybrid membranes were fabricated with

synthesized MOFs as fillers and sulfonated poly (arylene ether ketone sulfone) containing carboxyl groups (C-SPAEKS) as organic

matrix. The structures and morphologies of the prepared MOFs and hybrid

membranes were characterized by 1H NMR, XRD, FT-IR and SEM. The PXRD

results showed that Im@MOF-801 and Im-MOF-801 exhibited excellent stabilities

in both water and acid. The proton conductivities of these hybrid membranes

were much higher (0.023-0.066 S cm-1

at 30 oC, 0.050-0.128 S cm-1 at 90 oC) than

that of pure C-SPAEKS (0.010S cm-1 at 30 oC, 0.024 S cm-1

at 90 oC). Moreover, C-SPAEKS/Im-MOF-801-4% could maintain a stable

proton conductivity for more than 100 h. These results indicate that these

hybrid membranes have potential as proton exchange membranes.