Modification and evaluation of membranes for vanadium redox battery applications

Abstract

Several commercial ion exchange membranes were evaluated for application in the vanadium redox battery. The polyether membrane, DF120 cationic exchange membrane, showed the highest permeability to vanadium ions and the worst chemical stability in V(V) solution, while the divinylbenzene membrane, JAM anionic exchange membrane, showed the lowest permeability to vanadium ions and the best chemical stability in V(V) solution. In order to impart some cationic exchange capacity to the JAM anionic exchange membrane, sodium 4-styrenesulfonate was used to modify the anionic membrane by in situ polymerization. Measurements by infrared spectroscopy (IR) and cationic ion exchange capacity (IEC) verified that the modification procedure imparts cationic exchange capability to the membrane. Incorporation of cationic exchange groups to the anionic exchange membrane further results in a reduction in permeability to vanadium ions. The current and energy efficiencies averaged over 8 charge/discharge cycles of the cell with the treated JAM membrane were higher than that with the untreated JAM membrane. The current and energy efficiencies of the cell with the treated JAM membrane did not change over several charge/discharge cycles, which indicates good chemical stability of the treated membrane in the vanadium redox cell. The average efficiencies of the cell with the treated JAM membrane are higher than that with Nafion 117 over 8 charge/discharge cycles.

Recent advances with UNSW vanadium-based redox flow batteries

“…As the most expensive component is the membrane, further work has been undertaken by a number of laboratories in recent years [16][17][18][19][20], to develop low-cost alternatives to the original membranes used by the UNSW group [21][22][23], SEI [24], and VRB Power [25]. In spite of this, however, expensive Nafion membrane has still been employed in many G1 VRF battery demonstrations [25,26].]…”

Nafion/TiO2 hybrid membrane fabricated via hydrothermal method for vanadium redox battery

“…It employs V(II)/V(III) and V (IV)/V(V) redox couples in the negative and positive half-cell electrolytes which are separated by an ion exchange membrane (IEM) [5]. IEM is one of the key components in VRB system, which is used to prevent cross-mixing of the positive and negative electrolytes, but still to allow the transport of ions, such as proton, to complete the circuit during the passage of current.…”

Characteristics and performance of 10kW class all-vanadium redox-flow battery stack

“…Moreover, because of using only vanadium species for both halves of the cell, the problem of electrolytes crosscontamination through battery separator was overcome [4][5][6]. Based on these attractive features, more and more attentions have been paid to VRB recently [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18].…”