In this work, we developed pore-filled ion-exchange membranes (PFIEMs) fabricated for the application to an all-vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) by filling a hydrocarbon-based ionomer containing a fluorine moiety into the pores of a porous polyethylene (PE) substrate having excellent physical and chemical stabilities. The prepared PFIEMs were shown to possess superior tensile strength (i.e., 136.6 MPa for anion-exchange membrane; 129.9 MPa for cation-exchange membrane) and lower electrical resistance compared with commercial membranes by employing a thin porous PE substrate as a reinforcing material. In addition, by introducing a fluorine moiety into the filling ionomer along with the use of the porous PE substrate, the oxidation stability of the PFIEMs could be greatly improved, and the permeability of vanadium ions could also be significantly reduced. As a result of the evaluation of the charge–discharge performance in the VRFB, it was revealed that the higher the fluorine content in the PFIEMs was, the higher the current efficiency was. Moreover, the voltage efficiency of the PFIEMs was shown to be higher than those of the commercial membranes due to the lower electrical resistance. Consequently, both of the pore-filled anion- and cation-exchange membranes showed superior charge–discharge performances in the VRFB compared with those of hydrocarbon-based commercial membranes.
An electrolyte is one of the essential components in diverse electrochemical devices including lithium secondary batteries and dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). Traditional liquid electrolytes having a high ion conductivity suffer from a problem of lowering the durability of the electrochemical devices because they have high flowability and volatility. Therefore, to improve the reliability of the electrochemical devices, it is preferable to replace the liquid electrolyte with a quasi-solid electrolyte. However, quasi-solid electrolytes are usually difficult to inject the devices and have a lower ion conductivity due to a higher viscosity than liquid electrolyte. In this study, we have developed a quasi-solid electrolyte which is based on a low molecular weight gelator (LMWG) with high conductivity and stability through proper physical crosslinking. In addition, the combination of various polymer materials including special functional groups with LMWG has been investigated for the optimization of the electrolyte performances. Especially, the prepared quasi-solid electrolytes have been systematically analyzed by various electrochemical methods and applied to both lithium battery and DSSC for evaluating their performances. The detailed results will be presented and discussed at the conference. This work was supported by a grant (No.2017000140002/ RE201702218) from the Environmental Industry Advancement Technology Development Project of Korea Environmental Industry & Technology funded by Korea Ministry of Environment.
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