Thermally triggered polyrotaxane translational motion helps proton transfer

Synthetic polyelectrolytes, capable of fast transporting protons, represent a challenging target for membrane engineering in so many fields, for example, fuel cells, redox flow batteries, etc. Inspired by the fast advance in molecular machines, here we report a rotaxane based polymer entity assembled via host–guest interaction and prove that by exploiting the thermally triggered translational motion (although not in a controlled manner) of mechanically bonded rotaxane, exceptionally fast proton transfer can be fulfilled at an external thermal input. The relative motion of the sulfonated axle to the ring in rotaxane happens at ~60 °C in our cases and because of that a proton conductivity (indicating proton transfer rate) of 260.2 mS cm−1, which is much higher than that in the state-of-the-art Nafion, is obtained at a relatively low ion-exchange capacity (representing the amount of proton transfer groups) of 0.73 mmol g−1.