A new long-side-chain sulfonated poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPO)/polybenzimidazole (PBI) amphoteric membrane for vanadium redox flow battery

doi:10.1016/j.cjche.2020.03.010

Abstract

Abstract: A new amphoteric membrane was prepared by blending long-side-chain sulfonated poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (S-L-PPO) and polybenzimidazole (PBI) for vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) application. An acid-base pair structure formed between the imidazole of PBI and sulfonic acid of S-L-PPO resulted in lowered swelling ratio. It favors to reduce the vanadium permeation. While, the increased sulfonic acid concentration ensured that proton conductivity was still at a high level. As a result, a better balance between the vanadium ion permeation (6.1×10^-9 cm²·s^-1) and proton conductivity (50.8 mS·cm^-1) in the S-L-PPO/PBI-10% membrane was achieved. The VRFB performance with S-L-PPO/PBI-10% membrane exhibited an EE of 82.7%, which was higher than those of pristine S-L-PPO (81.8%) and Nafion 212 (78.0%) at 120 mA·cm^-2. In addition, the S-LPPO/PBI-10% membrane had a much longer self-discharge duration time (142 h) than that of Nafion 212 (23 h).

Key words: Amphoteric membrane, Poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPO), Vanadium redox flow battery, Polybenzimidazole (PBI), Long side chain

摘要： A new amphoteric membrane was prepared by blending long-side-chain sulfonated poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (S-L-PPO) and polybenzimidazole (PBI) for vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) application. An acid-base pair structure formed between the imidazole of PBI and sulfonic acid of S-L-PPO resulted in lowered swelling ratio. It favors to reduce the vanadium permeation. While, the increased sulfonic acid concentration ensured that proton conductivity was still at a high level. As a result, a better balance between the vanadium ion permeation (6.1×10^-9 cm²·s^-1) and proton conductivity (50.8 mS·cm^-1) in the S-L-PPO/PBI-10% membrane was achieved. The VRFB performance with S-L-PPO/PBI-10% membrane exhibited an EE of 82.7%, which was higher than those of pristine S-L-PPO (81.8%) and Nafion 212 (78.0%) at 120 mA·cm^-2. In addition, the S-LPPO/PBI-10% membrane had a much longer self-discharge duration time (142 h) than that of Nafion 212 (23 h).

关键词: Amphoteric membrane, Poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPO), Vanadium redox flow battery, Polybenzimidazole (PBI), Long side chain

Bowen Jiang, Lei Hu, Xiaoming Yan, Jiahui Sun, Li Gao, Yan Dai, Xuehua Ruan, Gaohong He. A new long-side-chain sulfonated poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPO)/polybenzimidazole (PBI) amphoteric membrane for vanadium redox flow battery[J]. Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 2020, 28(7): 1918-1924.

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