Proton conductivity resulting from different triazole-based ligands in two new bifunctional decavanadates

Abstract

Triazole, similarly to imidazole, makes a prominent contribution to the proton conductivity of porous materials. To investigate the effects of triazole-based ligands in polyoxovanadates (POVs) on proton conduction, we designed and synthesized two decavanadate-based POVs, [Zn₃(C₂H₄N₄)₆(H₂O)₆](V₁₀O₂₈)·14H₂O (1) and [Zn₃(C₂H₃N₃)₈(H₂O)₄](V₁₀O₂₈)·8H₂O (2) constructed from the ligands 3-amino-1,2,4-triazole and 1H-1,2,4-triazole, respectively, via an aqueous solution evaporation method. Surprisingly, complex 1 obtained a superior proton conductivity of 1.24 × 10⁻² S cm⁻¹ under 60 °C and 98% RH, which is much higher than that of complex 2. Furthermore, due to the contribution of the conjugate properties of the ligands to the third-order nonlinear optical (NLO) properties, we also studied its two-photon responses and achieved satisfactory results.