The equivalence of protonic water to an electronic semiconductor is undeniable: each undergoes detailed-balance generation, recombination, and transport of mobile charge carriers driven by gradients in their electrochemical potentials. During my presentation, I will further explain how water is a protonic semiconductor and show that it can be doped through addition of salts of H+ and/or OH– that when fixed in place using polymeric bipolar membrane scaffolds, or by freezing, enables protonic diodes. Their electrochemical evaluation requires fabrication of membrane–electrode–assemblies that drive reversible H2 redox chemistry in order to transduce electronic electrochemical potentials into protonic electrochemical potentials, and vice versa. Analysis of impedance spectroscopy data afforded quantification of the so-called “flatband” potential (i.e. when the electric potential difference across the pn-junction is zero), “electroactive” dopant density, minority carrier collection length, and distribution of quasi-electrochemical potential splitting. Collectively, these efforts form the foundational framework for new devices and functions that benefit from purely protonic transport and reactivity. We are hopeful that it motivates participants to help us expand our platform to protonic versions of other condensed matter phenomena, such as 2D gases, spintronic devices, and topological insulators.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.