Novel sulfonated polyimide/ZrO2 composite membrane as a separator of vanadium redox flow battery |
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Authors: | Jinchao Li Yaping Zhang Shuai Zhang Xiaodong Huang Lei Wang |
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Affiliation: | Engineering Research Center of Biomass Materials, Ministry of Education, Southwest University of Science and Technology, , Mianyang, 621010 China |
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Abstract: | Sulfonated polyimide (SPI) and ZrO2 are blended to prepare a series of novel SPI/ZrO2 composite membranes for vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) application. Results of atomic force microscopy and X‐ray diffraction reveal that ZrO2 is successfully composited with SPI. All SPI/ZrO2 membranes possess high proton conductivity (2.96–3.72 × 10?2 S cm?1) and low VO2+ permeability (2.18–4.04 × 10?7 cm2 min?1). SPI/ZrO2‐15% membrane is determined as the optimum one on account of its higher proton selectivity and improved chemical stability. The VRFB with SPI/ZrO2‐15% membrane presents higher coulombic efficiency and energy efficiency than that with Nafion 117 membrane at the current density, which ranged from 20 to 80 mA cm?2. Cycling tests indicate that the SPI/ZrO2‐15% membrane has good operation stability in the VRFB system. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
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Keywords: | vanadium redox flow battery sulfonated polyimide composite membrane vanadium ions permeability |
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