skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Aqueous proton transfer across single-layer graphene

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms7539· OSTI ID:1210480
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [2];  [8];  [8];  [4];  [9];  [1]
  1. Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL (United States)
  2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Science (CNMS)
  3. Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States)
  4. Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
  5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Measurement Science and Systems Engineering Division
  6. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Measurement Science and Systems Engineering Division
  7. Univ. of Puerto Rico, San Juan (Puerto Rico); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Chemical Sciences Division
  8. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Chemical Sciences Division
  9. Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States); Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)

Proton transfer across single-layer graphene proceeds with large computed energy barriers and is therefore thought to be unfavourable at room temperature unless nanoscale holes or dopants are introduced, or a potential bias is applied. In this paper, we subject single-layer graphene supported on fused silica to cycles of high and low pH, and show that protons transfer reversibly from the aqueous phase through the graphene to the other side where they undergo acid–base chemistry with the silica hydroxyl groups. After ruling out diffusion through macroscopic pinholes, the protons are found to transfer through rare, naturally occurring atomic defects. Computer simulations reveal low energy barriers of 0.61–0.75 eV for aqueous proton transfer across hydroxyl-terminated atomic defects that participate in a Grotthuss-type relay, while pyrylium-like ether terminations shut down proton exchange. Finally, unfavourable energy barriers to helium and hydrogen transfer indicate the process is selective for aqueous protons.

Research Organization:
Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC). Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures and Transport Center (FIRST); Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC) (United States). Fluid Interface Reactions, Structures and Transport Center (FIRST); Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
ERKCC61; AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
1210480
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1265424
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 6; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 184 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (73)

Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple journal October 1996
Graphene-Based Environmental Barriers journal July 2012
Rapid long-range proton diffusion along the surface of the purple membrane and delayed proton transfer into the bulk. journal January 1995
Graphene Oxide Membranes for Ionic and Molecular Sieving journal February 2014
Why Are Water−Hydrophobic Interfaces Charged? journal March 2008
Cover Picture: Recoding the Genetic Code with Selenocysteine (Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 1/2014) journal December 2013
Graphene Reknits Its Holes journal July 2012
Evidence of the Existence of Three Types of Species at the Quartz−Aqueous Solution Interface at pH 0−10: XPS Surface Group Quantification and Surface Complexation Modeling journal March 2002
Proton transport through one-atom-thick crystals journal November 2014
Protons migrate along interfacial water without significant contributions from jumps between ionizable groups on the membrane surface journal August 2011
Specific Cation Effects on the Bimodal Acid–Base Behavior of the Silica/Water Interface journal April 2012
Mechanisms of Proton Conductance in Polymer Electrolyte Membranes journal May 2001
Interaction of Chromium(VI) with the α-Aluminum Oxide−Water Interface journal February 2008
Jammed Acid−Base Reactions at Interfaces journal November 2008
Proton migration along the membrane surface and retarded surface to bulk transfer journal August 1994
Hydrated Excess Proton at Water−Hydrophobic Interfaces journal April 2009
Crown ethers in graphene journal November 2014
Acoustic waves in finite superlattices: Influence of buffer layers journal January 1999
First principles study of the permeability of graphene to hydrogen atoms journal January 2013
Interactions of Organic Solvents at Graphene/α-Al 2 O 3 and Graphene Oxide/α-Al 2 O 3 Interfaces Studied by Sum Frequency Generation journal July 2014
The role of fixed and mobile buffers in the kinetics of proton movement journal January 1987
Grains and grain boundaries in single-layer graphene atomic patchwork quilts journal January 2011
Unimpeded Permeation of Water Through Helium-Leak-Tight Graphene-Based Membranes journal January 2012
Thermodynamics and Proton Transport in Nafion journal January 2005
Environmental Biogeochemistry Studied by Second-Harmonic Generation:  A Look at the Agricultural Antibiotic Oxytetracycline journal June 2007
Water at hydrophobic interfaces delays proton surface-to-bulk transfer and provides a pathway for lateral proton diffusion journal June 2012
Vacancy clusters as entry ports for cesium intercalation in graphite journal October 2011
Nanoporous Graphene Membranes for Efficient 3 He/ 4 He Separation journal January 2012
Graphene Nucleation Density on Copper: Fundamental Role of Background Pressure journal September 2013
Scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) feedback approach for measuring lateral proton diffusion in langmuir monolayers: theory and application journal July 2002
Direct Imaging of Lattice Atoms and Topological Defects in Graphene Membranes journal November 2008
Impermeable Atomic Membranes from Graphene Sheets journal August 2008
Precise and Ultrafast Molecular Sieving Through Graphene Oxide Membranes journal February 2014
Properties of Hydrated Excess Protons near Phospholipid Bilayers journal January 2010
Microinjection in combination with microfluorimetry to study proton diffusion along phospholipid membranes journal March 2008
Characterization of the Solvation and Transport of the Hydrated Proton in the Perfluorosulfonic Acid Membrane Nafion journal September 2006
Interaction of Magnesium Ions with Pristine Single-Layer and Defected Graphene/Water Interfaces Studied by Second Harmonic Generation journal February 2014
Efficiency of ab-initio total energy calculations for metals and semiconductors using a plane-wave basis set journal July 1996
Direct evidence for atomic defects in graphene layers journal August 2004
Electrochemistry at the Edge of a Single Graphene Layer in a Nanopore journal December 2012
Halide-Induced Cooperative Acid–Base Behavior at a Negatively Charged Interface journal April 2013
Polarization of water molecules at a charged interface: second harmonic studies of the silica/water interface journal April 1992
Localized proton microcircuits at the biological membrane-water interface journal December 2006
Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set journal October 1996
Lateral Proton Diffusion Rates along Stearic Acid Monolayers journal March 2000
Accurate Measurement of Electron Beam Induced Displacement Cross Sections for Single-Layer Graphene journal May 2012
ReaxFF:  A Reactive Force Field for Hydrocarbons journal October 2001
Excited-State Proton Transfer and Proton Diffusion near Hydrophilic Surfaces journal November 2013
Interfacial Acidities, Charge Densities, Potentials, and Energies of Carboxylic Acid-Functionalized Silica/Water Interfaces Determined by Second Harmonic Generation journal September 2004
Graphene Visualizes the First Water Adlayers on Mica at Ambient Conditions journal September 2010
Kinetic Studies of Chromium (VI) Binding to Carboxylic Acid- and Methyl Ester-Functionalized Silica/Water Interfaces Important in Geochemistry journal September 2005
Free Energy Relationships in the Electrical Double Layer over Single-Layer Graphene journal January 2013
Selective Ionic Transport through Tunable Subnanometer Pores in Single-Layer Graphene Membranes journal February 2014
Liquid flow along a solid surface reversibly alters interfacial chemistry journal June 2014
An electron microscope for the aberration-corrected era journal February 2008
Improved tangent estimate in the nudged elastic band method for finding minimum energy paths and saddle points journal December 2000
Porous Graphene as the Ultimate Membrane for Gas Separation journal December 2009
Structure and Dynamics of OH - (aq) journal February 2006
Interaction of Nitrate, Barium, Strontium and Cadmium Ions with Fused Quartz/Water Interfaces Studied by Second Harmonic Generation journal January 2008
Atomistic Origins of High Rate Capability and Capacity of N-Doped Graphene for Lithium Storage journal February 2014
High-resolution X-ray luminescence extension imaging journal February 2021
Surface science journal November 1973
Thermodynamics and Proton Transport in Nafion journal January 2005
Graphene Nucleation Density on Copper: Fundamental Role of Background Pressure text January 2013
Thermodynamics and Proton Transport in Nafion journal January 2005
Graphene Nucleation Density on Copper: Fundamental Role of Background Pressure text January 2013
Impermeable Atomic Membranes from Graphene Sheets text January 2008
Unimpeded permeation of water through helium-leak-tight graphene-based membranes text January 2011
An accurate measurement of electron beam induced displacement cross sections for single-layer graphene text January 2012
Precise and ultrafast molecular sieving through graphene oxide membranes text January 2014
Proton transport through one atom thick crystals text January 2014
Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Proton Transport Near the Surface of a Phospholipid Membrane journal March 2002
Reverse occlusion leads to a precise restoration of orientation preference maps in visual cortex journal August 1994

Cited By (38)

On the Origin of Ion Selectivity in Ultrathin Nanopores: Insights for Membrane-Scale Osmotic Energy Conversion journal August 2018
Modeling Diffusion in Functional Materials: From Density Functional Theory to Artificial Intelligence journal July 2019
State-of-the-Art and Future Prospects for Atomically Thin Membranes from 2D Materials journal August 2018
Barrier Reduction of Lithium Ion Tunneling through Graphene with Hybrid Defects: First-Principles Calculations journal January 2018
Modification of poly(vinylidene fluoride) membranes with aluminum oxide nanowires and graphene oxide nanosheets for oil-water separation journal January 2019
Fundamental transport mechanisms, fabrication and potential applications of nanoporous atomically thin membranes journal June 2017
The ReaxFF reactive force-field: development, applications and future directions journal March 2016
Polymerization driven monomer passage through monolayer chemical vapour deposition graphene journal October 2018
Aqueous proton-selective conduction across two-dimensional graphyne journal March 2019
Transparent proton transport through a two-dimensional nanomesh material journal September 2019
Perfect proton selectivity in ion transport through two-dimensional crystals journal September 2019
Outlook for graphene-based desalination membranes journal May 2018
Giant photoeffect in proton transport through graphene membranes journal January 2018
Phase transitions of ordered ice in graphene nanocapillaries and carbon nanotubes journal March 2018
A reduced graphene oxide nanofiltration membrane intercalated by well-dispersed carbon nanotubes for drinking water purification journal January 2016
Energetics and diffusion of liquid water and hydrated ions through nanopores in graphene: ab initio molecular dynamics simulation journal January 2017
Counting charges on membrane-bound peptides journal January 2018
Anomalous proton conduction behavior across a nanoporous two-dimensional conjugated aromatic polymer membrane journal January 2020
Design of ultrathin hybrid membranes with improved retention efficiency of molecular dyes journal January 2019
Relative permittivity in the electrical double layer from nonlinear optics journal June 2018
2D nanoporous membrane for cation removal from water: Effects of ionic valence, membrane hydrophobicity, and pore size journal June 2018
Quantum tunneling of thermal protons through pristine graphene journal May 2018
Theoretical description of quantum mechanical permeation of graphene membranes by charged hydrogen isotopes journal June 2018
Proton and hydrogen transport through two-dimensional monolayers journal March 2016
A molecular dynamics based study to estimate the point defects formation energies in graphene containing STW defects journal October 2018
Defect formation dynamics in dry and water submerged graphene nanosheets journal April 2019
Sieving hydrogen isotopes through two-dimensional crystals journal December 2015
Prediction of perturbed proton transfer networks journal December 2018
Sieving hydrogen isotopes through two dimensional crystals text January 2015
Relative Permittivity in the Electrical Double Layer from Nonlinear Optics text January 2017
Density Functional Based Simulations of Proton Permeation of Graphene and Hexagonal Boron Nitride text January 2017
Perfect proton selectivity in ion transport through two-dimensional crystals text January 2019
Proton Acceptor near the Active Site Lowers Dramatically the O–O Bond Formation Energy Barrier in Photocatalytic Water Splitting journal November 2019
Kinetic Ionic Permeation and Interfacial Doping of Supported Graphene journal November 2019
Specifics About Specific Ion Adsorption from Heterodyne-Detected Second Harmonic Generation journal May 2019
Polymerization driven monomer passage through monolayer chemical vapour deposition graphene text January 2018
Phase-referenced Nonlinear Spectroscopy of the alpha-Quartz/Water Interface text January 2016
Scalable and efficient separation of hydrogen isotopes using graphene-based electrochemical pumping text January 2017