Ahn SM, Jeong HY, Jang JK, Lee JY, So S, Kim YJ, Hong YT, Kim TH. Polybenzimidazole/Nafion hybrid membrane with improved chemical stability for vanadium redox flow battery application.
RSC Adv 2018;
8:25304-25312. [PMID:
35539795 PMCID:
PMC9082649 DOI:
10.1039/c8ra03921f]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/08/2018] [Accepted: 07/08/2018] [Indexed: 12/31/2022] Open
Abstract
In order to increase the chemical stability of polybenzimidazole (PBI) membrane against the highly oxidizing environment of a vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB), PBI/Nafion hybrid membrane was developed by spray coating a Nafion ionomer onto one surface of the PBI membrane. The acid–base interaction between the sulfonic acid of the Nafion and the benzimidazole of the PBI created a stable interfacial adhesion between the Nafion layer and the PBI layer. The hybrid membrane showed an area resistance of 0.269 Ω cm2 and a very low vanadium permeability of 1.95 × 10−9 cm2 min−1. The Nafion layer protected the PBI from chemical degradation under accelerated oxidizing conditions of 1 M VO2+/5 M H2SO4, and this was subsequently examined in spectroscopic analysis. In the VRFB single cell performance test, the cell with the hybrid membrane showed better energy efficiency than the Nafion cell with 92.66% at 40 mA cm−2 and 78.1% at 100 mA cm−2 with no delamination observed between the Nafion layer and the PBI layer after the test was completed.
Novel polybenzimidazole (PBI)/Nafion hybrid membranes for the VRFB are made by spray coating a Nafion layer to protect PBI from chemical degradation.![]()
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