Chemistry and Physics Faculty Articles

Title

Imprisoned Lightning: Charge Transport in Trehalose-Derived Sugar Glasses

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2015

Publication Title

Ionics

Keywords

Trehalose, Glass relaxation, Activation energy, Grotthuss mechanism, Proton conductors

ISSN

0947-7047

Volume

21

Issue/No.

8

First Page

2211

Last Page

2217

Abstract

Trehalose is a naturally occurring disaccharide noted for its ability to preserve the biological function of proteins and cell membranes during periods of stress—such as water deprivation or extreme temperature—by stabilizing the conformations of the macromolecules within a glassy matrix. This phenomenon makes use of the propensity for trehalose to interact strongly with protein functional groups and solvent water molecules via hydrogen bonding. Previously, it has been shown that trehalose sugar glasses also support long-range charge transport in oxidation-reduction reactions occurring between spatially separated donors and acceptors. Here, through the use of bulk Arrhenius DC-conductivity measurements, we infer that this anomalously high carrier mobility is due to proton hopping along a hydrogen bonding network formed by sorbed “water wires,” a process known as the Grotthuss mechanism. Additionally, we find that the apparent activation energy of the conductivity depends non-monotonically on the bias voltage. The possibility is raised for novel photovoltaic devices based on the entrapment of photosynthetic proteins within these glasses.

Comments

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

DOI

10.1007/s11581-015-1410-6

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Peer Reviewed

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