Study of protonic diffusion in hydrogen uranyl phosphate using a pulsed field gradient NMR method

The diffusion of ¹H in the fast protonic conductor H(UO₂PO₄) · 4H₂O has been investigated as a function of temperature by employing pulsed field gradient NMR measurements. In the light of the present diffusion results and published conductivity observations on the same compound, it is likely that protonic diffusion and conductivity in this material occur by the same mechanism. Possible mechanistic processes for the proton motion in this material which are consistent with the activation energy for protonic diffusion found in this study are briefly discussed.