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Title

Enhancement of Proton Transport in an Oriented
Polypeptide Thin Film

Author(s)Nagao, Yuki; Matsui, Jun; Abe, Takashi;
Hiramatsu, Hirotsugu; Yamamoto, Hitoshi;
Miyashita, Tokuji; Sata, Noriko; Yugami, Hiroo

Citation

Langmuir, 29(23): 6798‑6804

Issue Date

2013‑05‑30

Type

Journal Article

Text version

author

URL

http://hdl.handle.net/10119/12061

RightsYuki Nagao, Jun Matsui, Takashi Abe, Hirotsugu
Hiramatsu, Hitoshi Yamamoto, Tokuji Miyashita,
Noriko Sata, and Hiroo Yugami, Langmuir, 2013,29(23), pp.6798‑6804. This document is theunedited author's version of a Submitted Workthat was subsequently accepted for publication in
Langmuir, copyright (c) American Chemical Society
after peer review. To access the final edited andpublished work, see[http://pubs.acs.org/articlesonrequest/AOR‑
xP7dB8mqYiEqgIgNAej4].

Description

Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Enhancement of Proton Transport by in an Oriented
Secondary Structure in Polypeptide Thin Film
Yuki Nagao,*,† Jun Matsui,‡ Takashi Abe,§ Hirotsugu Hiramatsu,|| Hitoshi Yamamoto,┴
Tokuji Miyashita,‡ Noriko Sata,@ Hiroo Yugami&†

School of Materials Science, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 1-1 Asahidai,

Nomi, Ishikawa 923-1292, Japan‡

Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials (IMRAM), Tohoku University,

2-1-1 Katahira, Sendai 980-8577, Japan§

Graduate School of Science and Technology, Niigata University, 8050 Ikarashi 2-no-cho, Nishi-ku, Niigata 950-2181, Japan||

Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aoba Aramaki, Aoba-ku,

Sendai 980-8578, Japan┴

Department of Safety and Hygiene, Osaka University, 1-1 Yamadaoka Suita, Osaka 565-0871,

Japan
@

Institute of Technical Thermodynamics, German Aerospace Center (DLR), 38-40

Pfaffenwaldring, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany1&Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, 6-6-01 Aoba Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai

980-8579, Japan*E-mail:ynagao@jaist.ac.jp
Proton transport of peptide, Highly oriented thin film, Hierarchical structure, Carboxylic acid

Abstract
Proton transport properties of a partially protonated poly(aspartic acid)/sodium polyaspartate (PAsp) were investigated. A remarkable enhancement of proton conductivity has been achieved bya highly oriented structure in the thin film. Proton conductivity of 60-nm-thick thin film preparedon MgO(100) substrate was 3.4  10-3 S cm-1 at 298K. The electrical conductivity of the oriented
thin film was one order of magnitude higher than the bulk specimen and the activation energies
for the proton conductivity were, respectively, 0.34 eV for the oriented thin film and 0.65 eV for
the pelletized sample. This enhancement of the proton transport is attributable to the highlyoriented structure on MgO(100) substrate. This result demonstrates proposes great potential for a
new strategy to produce a highly proton-conductive material using the concept of an oriented
thin film structure without strong acid groups.

1. Introduction
Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEFCs) are ideal power sources having high efficiency
and power-to-weight ratios over other portable power devices. Remarkable progresses are noted2

in the research and development of PEFCs in the last decades. Despite of the significant numbersof polymer electrolyte materials that have been developed and studied so far, commercializationof PEFCs needs a breakthrough in the development of electrolytes of high proton conductivity,
material stability as well as low cost. In those proton conducting polymers, decrease in proton
conductivity is a trade-off between performance and membrane stability. One fundamental
approach to create highly proton-conductive material is chemical modification. Usually, sulfonicacid groups are used as a proton conductive group because of their excellent property to achieve
high proton conductivity.1-6 However, the high acidity of sulfonic groups restricts the polymer
backbone to fluoro or aromatic groups, which requires high production costs. Therefore, a new
strategy for low cost production of highly proton-conductive materials has been sought for a longtime.
In a Nafion membrane, it is well known that protons are transported through nanochannels
made of sulfonic acid groups, which has been intensively discussed by many researchers.7-10 The
nanochannels are created by phase separation with the amphiphilic character of Nafion. The
proton transport property of Nafion is excellent when the PEFC is operated below 80°C. It is,however, highly required to improve both the proton transport property and the stability at higher
temperature, which is limited within the concept using the microphase separation. Our group
found that the proton conductivity of the Nafion thin film (thickness ~ 400 nm) decreased
extremely compared to that of the commercial membrane (thickness ~ 200 μm).11,12 In the thinfilm, the thin film was fabricated on a flat substrate and the conductivity measurement has been
performed parallel to the film surface. We have found that the sulfonic acid groups are highlyoriented to form dimer or trimer by hydrogen bonds in between. It is suggested that the oriented
structure blocks ion conduction path parallel to the substrate surface by the isolated sulfonic acid3

group phase and the ion conductivity is dramatically decreased. Our results demonstrated that themolecular orientation of the sulfonic acid groups may significantly affect the proton transport
property. Therefore, the microphase separation as well as the proton conductive grouporientation will be the key properties to improve proton conductivity.
Our group has been studying to find a new and different concept from Nafion and tosynthesize proton conductors using poly(aspartic acid). The poly(aspartic acid) has freecarboxylic acid groups at the side chains, and the protons at these groups are mobile for proton
conduction. It is well acknowledged that amino acid polymers take several hierarchical structures
such as -helix or -sheets via hydrogen bonding between the amino acids. We, therefore,
speculated that a high proton conduction path will be achieved when an ordered proton
conductive channel is formed by such hierarchical structures. It is quite different from the case of
Nafion membrane, in which microphase separation leads to the high proton conductivity. We
have reported recently a significantly high proton conductivity in the thin films of poly(asparticacid) fabricated on fused silica substrates.13 The proton conductivity of the thin film was oneorder magnitude higher than the pelletized specimen. It is suggested that the origin for the proton
conductivity enhancement was due to the structural effects, as we speculated, such as molecularorientation, however, further structural analyses are required to confirm the origin of the
conductivity enhancement.
In this study, we investigated the proton transport properties of a partially protonatedpoly(aspartic acid)/sodium polyaspartate (P-Asp) thin film prepared on MgO(100) substrate byspin coating and the relationship between the molecular orientation in the hierarchical structure
and proton transport property was investigated using the amino acid polymer. Infrared
spectroscopy, i.e. infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (RAS) and p-polarized multiple-4

angle incidence resolution (p-MAIR) technique14-17, has been performed using MgO substrate
which is transparent in the correspondent IR region to determine the thin film structure and themechanism of proton conductivity enhancement are discussed in this paper. We found asecondary structure and highly oriented structure of the peptide groups in the thin film on
MgO(100) substrate acted as a proton conducting channel, induced the enhancement effect to theproton conduction.

2. Experimental Section
P-Asp was synthesized according to Scheme 1.13 D, L-aspartic acid, o-phosphoric acid,methanol, sodium hydroxide, and HCl were purchased from Wako Pure Chemical Industries Ltd.
Partially protonated poly(aspartic acid)/sodium polyaspartate (P-Asp) was synthesized as follows(Scheme 1). D, L-Aspartic acid of 1 g and 85% o-phosphoric acid of 600 l were added to 100
ml round-bottom flask and mixed for 10 min under Ar atmosphere. The mixture was heated at
170 oC for 1 hr. The product was washed with methanol and water. The residue was washed withmethanol and dried under reduced pressure. The dried sample of 0.7 g and a solution of sodiumhydroxide of 0.3 g with 20 ml of deionized water were added to a 200 ml beaker with stirring for
20 min. After the reaction, the solution was adjusted to about pH 6 by the addition of 35%
aqueous HCl into the solution. A white precipitate was obtained by adding methanol of 100 ml.
The sample was washed with methanol and was separated from the supernatant, in which thecentrifuge technique was used in the washing and separation procedures. The obtained sample
was dried under reduced pressure.

5

The sample was characterized via 1H NMR and FT-IR measurements.13 The average degree ofpolymerization was ca.50, which was determined by comparing the ratio of the peak area derived
from the proton of –CH2 at the amino end groups (δ = 2.95 – 3.25 ppm) to that of the intrachain –CH2 and –CH2 at the carboxyl end groups. The degree of protonation was found to be 6% using
the titrimetric method. The P-Asp thin film was prepared by spin coating using a spincoater(ACT-200; Active) on a mirror-polished MgO(100) substrate. MgO(100) substrate waspurchased from Neotron Co., Ltd. The MgO(100) substrate size was 15  15  0.5 mm3. Before
spincoating, the substrate was irradiated by UV light for 1 hr to clean the surface. The thickness
and surface roughness were determined using a contact stylus profiler (P-10; KLA-Tencor Corp.).
The thicknesses of the thin films were 20 – 60 nm. The roughness measurement secured us its
smoothness, which was sufficient for impedance analysis.
Impedance measurements of the pelletized sample and thin films were conducted at relative
humidity (RH) of 40–70% using an Impedance/Gain-Phase analyzer (SI1260; Solartron
Analytical) and a Dielectric Interface system (1296; Solartron Analytical). The RH andtemperature were controlled using a humidity-controlled and temperature-controlled chamber(SH-221; Espec Corp.). For impedance measurements of the pelletized sample, the sample wasprocessed into pellets of 2.5 mm under pressure of about 1 GPa and porous gold paint(SILBEST No. 8560; Tokuriki Chemical Research) was used for electrodes. For impedance
measurements of the thin films, the electrode configuration was selected to obtain measurementsof the current flow in the plane parallel to the substrate surface. Typical complex impedanceplots of the P-Asp thin film were shown in Fig. S1. (See Supporting Information) The thin film
size on the MgO(100) substrate was ca. 5×10 mm. The electrode using Au paste was located at
the edge of the film, with a parallel electrode configuration. The distance between electrodes is6

4.0 mm. The porous Au electrode is also covered at the side of the film. The conductivity of the
MgO(100) substrate is negligible because its resistance is much higher than that of the thin film.
The isotope effects were also investigated using humidified gases by H2O and D2O.
For the measurement of the electromotive force (EMF) of an H2/O2 cell, the sample wasprocessed into pellets of 13 mm. Pt-loaded carbon paper sheets (Pt: 1 mg cm−2) were used aselectrodes. The pelletized sample was sandwiched between anode and cathode. Humidifiedhydrogen (100 ml/min) and oxygen (100 ml/min) were fed to anode and cathode, respectively.
The cell temperature and relative humidity were controlled to be 298 K and 70%, respectively.
Infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (RAS) was used to investigate the orientation ofamide bonds for P-Asp film on sputtered Au film on SiO2 substrate. RAS measurement was
performed with a FT-IR spectrometer equipped with a PR-510i accessory (FT/IR-4200; JASCO).
The polarized incident beam was reflected off the film surface at an incidence of 70º.
The p-MAIR measurements14-17 were performed on a FT-IR spectrometer (Nicolet 6700;
Thermo Fisher Scientific) equipped with a mercury-cadmium-telluride (MCT) detector. Mirrorpolished MgO(100) substrate was used for p-MAIR measurements. Single-beam spectra werecollected from 38° to 8° at 6° steps in the range of the angle of incidence as shown in Figure S2.
The aperture was fully opened (size of 150) and a metal plate with small pores was placed in thelight path of the incident beam to prevent saturation. To obtain the p-polarized light, a ZnSepolarizer was used. The cleaned substrate was used as the reference data.
For measurements of the water adsorption isotherm per unit as a function of the RH for thethin film, the weight was obtained using a quartz crystal microbalance made by T.A. (the third
author). The RH and temperature were controlled with a humidity-controlled and temperaturecontrolled chamber (SH-221; Espec Corp.).

7

3. Results and Discussion
The electrical conductivity of the pelletized sample, which included sodium ions, was 4.3  10-4
S cm-1 at 298 K and 70 % RH. It is reported that sodium ions may be coordinated by watermolecules to conduct protons.18,19 In this case, the negative charge of a silicate layer iscompensated by sodium cations that are octahedrally coordinated by water molecules in theinterlayer space. It is suggested that protons are mobile in our P-Asp similarly to these reports.
On the other hand, it is also possible that sodium cations are mobile. In order to determine
whether the main charge carrier of this specimen is proton, the EMF of an H2/O2 cell of thepelletized sample was measured. The obtained EMF of the pelletized sample was ca. 0.9V.13
Here we do not know about the mobility of the sodium ions, however, the EMF might be much
lower if the sodium ions are also significantly mobile, which indicates that the proton transportnumber of P-Asp was high and that the main carrier was proton. The H/D isotope effects using
H2O and D2O as humidified gases were also investigated to determine the ionic transport carrier.
Figure 1 shows impedance spectra under humidified conditions by H2O and D2O, respectively.
The atmosphere around the sample was filled with the vapor of H2O or D2O, where each vapor
was generated by bubbling H2O (D2O) with N2 gas. When the surrounding atmosphere of thesample was changed from D2O to H2O, the resistance decreased. Obvious difference in electricalconductivity was observed. The intersection of the semicircle corresponds to the resistance in
Fig.1. The resistances under H2O and D2O vapor are 0.9 and 1.4 × 105 Ω, respectively. The
resistance ratio is, therefore, very close to the theoretical value of the isotope effect (≈1.4 forproton/deuteron). This result supports the EMF result and confirms that the main carrier is proton.

8The proton conductivities of the pelletized and the 60-nm-thick film specimens of P-Asp ateach relative humidity (RH) are shown in Figure 2. The proton conductivity of the pelletizedsample and 60-nm-thick thin film logarithmically increased with RH, which is a typicalcharacteristic of proton conductive polymers. The proton conductivity of the thin film was 3.4 
10-3 S cm-1 under the RH of 70% at 298 K, which was one order of magnitude higher than that ofthe pelletized samples. It is remarkable that the proton conductivity of this kind of polymer showsuch a high value, in which the protons at carboxylic acid groups serve as proton sources.20 It isalso notable here that the conductivity enhancement was similarly observed in the thin film
fabricated on amorphous SiO2 substrate, as we mentioned in the introduction.13 As we havespeculated, the enhancement may be attributed to the formation of proton conducting path in thethin film. In our former report, we could not specify the origin of the enhancement. Therefore,
we have performed further structural determination to investigate molecular orientation in thethin film on MgO single crystal which is transparent in IR region.
Infrared absorption spectroscopy is a powerful tool to obtain information of the peptide
structure, and polarized IR measurements enable to analyze the orientation of functional group.
Infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (RAS), one of the polarized IR measurements, wasused to investigate the orientation of peptide groups for P-Asp. In the reflection absorption (RA)spectrum shown in Figure 3(a), IR bands were observed at 1670, 1620, 1540, 1410, and 3300
cm–1. The RAS method detects the vibrational modes of which the transition dipole moment has
a vector component perpendicular to the substrate. Therefore the strong absorption band at 1670
cm-1 (the Amide I band21,22, assigned to the C=O stretching mode) in RA spectrum indicates thatthe transition dipole moment of the Amide I band directs perpendicular rather than parallel to thesubstrate surface.

9The peak position of the Amide I band is related to the peptide main-chain structure.21,22
Judging from the observed peak position at 1670 cm–1, it is plausible that the P-Asp thin film
exists in neither regular secondary structures such as α-helix or β-sheet nor an irregular structure,
because these secondary structures show the Amide I bands at the range of 1640-1660, 16201640, and 1640-1660 cm–1, respectively.21,22 P-Asp would exist in other non-periodic secondary
structures, e.g., the β-turn21 or α-sheet23 structures that give the IR absorption bands above 1660
cm–1. The RA bands also appear around 1620 and 1410 cm-1 in the RA spectrum (Figure 3(a)),
and these bands are assignable to the anti-symmetric and symmetric stretch modes, respectively,of the COO– group of the P-Asp side chain.24 Besides, an inhomogeneous broadening of the N-Hstretching band of the peptide main chain of P-Asp is seen at 3300 cm-1 due to the hydrogenbond formation of the N-H groups of the peptide main chain (Figure 3(b)). The P-Asp main
chain probably forms intramolecular or intermolecular hydrogen bonds in the thin film.
Infrared p-polarized multiple-angle incidence resolution (p-MAIR) spectrometry was applied
to the P-Asp film in order to determine the structure.16,17 Infrared p-MAIR spectrometry is being
increasingly regarded as a powerful spectroscopic tool for revealing molecular orientation in thinfilms. Details of the measurement are given in the Supporting Information. Figure 4 shows inplane (IP) and out-of-plane(OP) components of the p-MAIR spectra of the oriented P-Asp film
sample.

The IP and OP spectra are calculated from the experimental data using p-MAIR

spectrometry analyzer software. The intensity of the 2IP signal is expected to be twice as large
as the OP signal in the case spatial distribution of the transition moment vector of the vibrationalmode is isotropic (see Supporting Information). The 2  IP signal becomes weaker when thetransition moment vector directs the out-of-plane to the substrate, while the OP signal becomes
weaker when the transition moment vector directs in-plane.

10The signal intensity of the Amide I band at 1670 cm–1 is comparable between the 2  IP and
OP spectra, and this result indicates that the transition moment vector of the amide I band at
1670 cm–1 directs perpendicular rather than parallel to the substrate plane. This suggestion isconsistent with the result of RAS. On the other hand, the symmetric and anti-symmetricstretching bands of the COO– group at ca. 1400 and 1600 cm-1 gave the stronger signal in the 2 
IP spectrum than in the twice intensity of the OP spectrum.

This result is explained byconsidering that the O-C-O plane of the COO– group of the Asp side chains lies parallel to thesubstrate plane. This model permits the in-plane orientation of the transition dipole moments ofboth symmetric and anti-symmetric stretch motion of the COO– group. Since the result of RAS(Figure 3(a)) indicates an out-of-plane component of the transition dipole moment of thevibrations of the COO– group, we expect that not all the side chains of P-Asp are completelyoriented.
From the two polarized IR spectroscopy, the RAS and p-MAIR spectrometry, we propose an
α-sheet like model for the high proton conductivity in the thin film (Figure 5) : high proton
migration paths are would be realized through α-sheet layers, which percolate in-plane formedby the stacked layer structure in out-of-plane direction of the substrate. This model does notnecessarily mean that the thin film is composed exclusively of α-sheet layers. This model
explains the peak position of the amide I band and the directionality of the peptide. This modelfor the high proton migration path is similar to the previous reports that ordered structures canimprove the proton transport property.10,25,26 Tamura and Kawakami found that the composite
bulk membrane containing uniaxially aligned sulfonated polyimide nanofibers exhibited a highproton conductivity.26 In this paper, the proposed structure in Figure 5 has been determinedreasonably by the results of FT-IR measurements. However, it remains a hypothetical model

11

without any further structural investigation to conclude the origin of enhanced conductivity.
Additional analytical methods, such as grazing incidence X-ray diffraction under the humidified
condition, are required to confirm the oriented thin film structure.
Another possible explanation for the proton conductivity enhancement results from spacecharge models. Enhancement phenomena of ionic conductivity in thin films (2D) of variety ofion conducting materials have been reported since more than 20 years.27-39 For many types ofinorganic ionic conductors, several theoretical models have been discussed, including spacecharge models, for understanding the enhancement phenomena of ionic conductivities.40-43 Whenthe space charge at the interface is concerned, enhancement of ion conductivity depends on the
thickness. As shown in the Figure 6, no clear-cut thickness dependence of proton conductivity
for P-Asp thin film for thickness of 20 – 60 nm was observed. This fact indicates that
contribution of the space charge effect on the proton conductivity enhancement may be verysmall in these thin films.
Vogt et al. reported that swelling of water was enhanced as the film became thinner in thecases of some polymers.44 To determine the quantity of the water adsorption, a water adsorption
isotherm was also measured. Figure 7 shows the water adsorption isotherm per unit as a functionof the RH for the pelletized P-Asp and its thin film. The quantity of the water molecules in thethin film was measured using quartz crystal microbalance. Their isotherm curves exhibited
similar values at each RH. This fact showed that the amount of adsorbed water in the thin film
and the pelletized sample are comparable with each other, therefore, the origin of proton
conductivity enhancement was not in the difference of the amount of water adsorption in thisstudy.

12

Finally, we show Arrhenius plots of the electrical conductivity in Figure 8. The activationenergy (Ea) and preexponential factor (σ0) were obtained from the equation below.

Ea 
 (1)
 k BT T   0 exp 

where σ is the proton conductivity, σ0 is the preexponential factor, kB is the Boltzmann constant,and T is the temperature. The activation energies for the proton conductivity were, respectively,
0.34 eV for the thin film and 0.65 eV for the pelletized sample. The activation energy of the thinfilm was half of that of the pelletized sample. This value was the smallest among the thin filmsof P-Asp we have ever synthesized including those in our previous reports. The low activationenergy demonstrates that protons are more easily transported in thin film than in the pelletizedsample. We would like to note here that this lower activation energy is well explained by the
proposed structure. When the water molecules are introduced into the polymer, they are placed
between the polymer chains. We speculated that these water molecules could make hydrogenbonding networks between the peptide groups and carboxylic acid groups at the side chains.
These hydrogen bonding networks could play a role for the proton conduction paths. The
polymer chain which is oriented in in-plane direction may have caused the enhancement of inplane proton conductivity in the thin film case. This fact is consistent with our proposed sheet-like model that the more favorable proton conductive channels were created in the thinfilms. The conductivities at room temperature are comparable on both substrates, while
activation energy of the thin film on SiO2 substrate is 0.53 eV,13 which is about 0.2 eV higher
than the case of MgO substrate. It is reported that the MgO(100) surface is more positively
charged than SiO2 surface.45 This polar surface of the crystal plane may influence positively forhighly oriented structure of P-Asp using carboxylate groups at the side chains. Recently we have13

found the substrate dependence between MgO and sapphire of the proton transport in the thinfilm and this was originated from the oriented structure at the interface.46 These results suggest
us a possible route to fabricate thin films of different proton transport properties by substrateselection. On the other hand, the preexponential factor (σ0) in the Arrhenius equation (1) for the
SiO2 substrate is higher than that for the MgO substrate. It is known that the σ0 term is related tothe concentration of conducting species. One possible reason for the different proton
conductivity between the SiO2 and MgO substrates is derived from the different concentration of
the mobile proton in the thin film. Another possibility is due to the different structure of the thinfilms between different substrates. Considering a significant difference of the activation energy
for the proton conduction between the SiO2 and MgO substrates, we should carefully conclude
the origin for the difference of the pre-exponential factor. To reveal the origin of the difference,the solid state NMR measurements will be a useful tool to reveal the proton mobility.
In order to check the molecular orientation in the pelletized sample, attenuated totalreflection (ATR) measurements were carried out with a FT-IR spectrometer (Nicolet 6700;
Thermo Fisher Scientific). Figure 9 shows the ATR spectra of the pelletized sample in eachconfiguration. Inset shows the configuration between the pelletized sample direction and IR light
direction. These spectra are identical. This result suggests a random orientation in the pelletizedsample. The Amide I band correspondingly appears at ca. 1650 cm–1 in the ATR result,consistent with the picture that the peptide main chain of P-Asp exists in the irregular structurethat gives the band at 1640-1660 cm–1.21,22 There is no scaffold for inducing the oriented
structure, which may result in a random orientation of P-Asp. Such a difference in structure wassuggested to be the origin of the remarkable difference in proton conductivity. Consideration of14

these experimental facts will lead to the conclusion that, the proton conductivity enhancement in
the 60-nm-thick film of P-Asp results from the highly oriented structure in the thin film.
The proton conductivity enhancement is well explained by the -sheet model proposed by the
structural analyses of the thin film on the MgO substrate. In the case of SiO2 substrate, thestructural analysis in this work is not possible since quartz is not transparent in the correspondent
IR region. On the other hand, identical thin film coating process of such polymeric materials may
result in similar structural characteristics independently of substrates. Therefore, it may bereasonable that similar conductivity enhancement is achieved in such a model that highmigration path is formed, although the differences in activation energy and preexponential factorof thin films on different substrates are not ignorable and further investigations are required.
Further investigation of proton conductivity enhancement on SiO2 substrate and molecularorientation mechanism are our future work.
4. Conclusion
A remarkable enhancement of proton conductivity in polypeptide thin film has been achieved,
which is attributable to the highly oriented structure on MgO(100) substrate. We found that the
P-Asp thin film prepared on MgO(100) substrate showed one order of magnitude higher proton
conductivity and 2 times smaller activation energy than their bulk sample. This study has
demonstrated proposed a new route to produce highly proton-conductive materials using theconcept of an oriented thin film structure without any strong acid groups and shows great
potential for application in the field of solid state ionics. This will open the door to molecularstructure-driven solid state protonics.
ASSOCIATED CONTENT

15

Supporting Information
Details in impedance plots and p-polarized multiple-angle incidence resolution spectrometry (pMAIRS). This material is available free of charge via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author*ynagao@jaist.ac.jp Phone: +81(Japan)-761-51-1541.
‡

Present address: Faculty of Science, Yamagata University, Kojirakawa-machi 1-4-12, Yamagata

990-8560, JapanACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) through theFunding Program (GR060) for Next Generation World-Leading Researchers (NEXT Program),initiated by the Council for Science and Technology Policy (CSTP).
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Scheme 1. Synthesis of partially protonated poly(aspartic acid) / sodium polyaspartate (P-Asp).

23

1-Z'' / 105 

H2O 298 K
D2O

0
0

1

2

Z' / 105 
Figure 1. Impedance spectra under humidified conditions by H2O (○) and D2O(■), respectively.
The atmosphere around the sample was filled with the vapor of H2O or D2O, where each vapor
was generated by bubbling H2O (D2O) with N2 gas.

24

Figure 2. Relative humidity dependence of the proton conductivities of the pelletized P-Asp (■)
and 60-nm-thick film on MgO(100) substrate (○). The measurement temperature was 298 K.
Inset is electrode configuration for each measurement.

25

(a)

K-M

(b)

3600

3400

3200

3000

2800

2600

Wavenumber / cm-1
Figure 3. Infrared reflection absorption (RA) spectra (a) RA spectrum of P-Asp film in thewavenumber region of 1800 – 1300 cm-1. (b) RA spectrum in the wavenumber region of 3700 –2500 cm-1. Vertical axis was converted by Kubelka-Munk transformation.

26

Absorbance

0.06

2xIP

0.04

OP
0.02
0
1800

1700

1600

1500

1400

1300

Wavenumber / cm-1
Figure 4. p-MAIR spectra of highly oriented P-Asp thin film. The IP component has two
orthogonal directions of electric field. Therefore, the IP absorbance was multiplied by a factor of
2.14

27

Figure 5. Proposed structure of the highly oriented P-Asp thin film. Pink atoms surrounded byyellow represent proton carriers of carboxylic acid groups. (C gray, N blue, O red, H white)

28

Log ( / S cm-1)

-1

-2

-3

-4
0

20

40

60

80

Thickness / nm

Figure 6. Thickness dependence of the proton conductivity for the P-Asp thin film. Relative
humidity was 70%.

29

Figure 7. Water adsorption isotherm per unit as a function of the RH for the pelletized P-Asp
and thin film. The measurement temperature was 298 K.

30

Figure 8. Temperature dependence of the proton conductivities of the pelletized P-Asp and 60nm-thick film on MgO(100) substrate. Relative humidity was 70%.

31

Figure 9. ATR spectra of the pelletized P-Asp. Inset shows the configuration between thepelletized sample direction and IR light direction.

32

TOC graphic

A remarkable enhancement of proton conductivity has been achieved by a highly oriented
structure in the thin film. The oriented thin film showed 10 times higher proton conductivity and2 times smaller activation energy than their bulk sample. This enhancement of the protontransport is attributable to the highly oriented structure. This result demonstrates proposes great
potential for a new strategy to produce a highly proton-conductive material using the concept ofan oriented thin film structure without strong acid groups.

33