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Highly selective sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone)/polyvinylpyrrolidone hybrid membranes for vanadium redox flow batteries

  • Polymers & biopolymers
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Abstract

A novel amphoteric membrane was designed by blending polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) with sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone) (SPEEK) to fabricate a vanadium redox flow battery. Acid–base pairs were formed by sulfonic acid and heterocyclic nitrogen, and the dense network structures were interwoven by the hydrogen bonds between the acid–base pairs. Vanadium ions were blocked by these network structures such that their penetration was weakened. Compared with Nafion115 and SPEEK membranes, the ion selectivity of SPEEK/PVP (S/P) hybrid membranes of various proportions was improved, of which the S/P-30% membrane performed best (106.1*104 S min cm−3). At the same time, these hybrid membranes showed far superior performances than the single-component membranes in a single-cell system. Most notably, the coulombic efficiency and energy efficiency achieved by the battery with a S/P-30% hybrid membrane were 97.5% and 84.5% at 60 mA cm−2, respectively, with notable stability after 50 cycles. The corresponding open-circuit voltage of the battery was maintained above 0.8 V for more than 73 h. This acid–base hybrid membrane has reached a high level of overall performance in binary non-fluorine proton exchange membranes in recent years.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2018YFB1502703), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51602209), the Provincial Nature Science Foundation of Sichuan (No. 2018FZ0105), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Nos. YJ201746, 2018SCUH0025) and the Technological Innovation Research and Development Project of Chengdu (2018-YF05-01409-GX).

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  1. College of Materials Science and Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Anfeng Li, Gang Wang, Xiaoyan Wei, Feng Li, Miaomiao Zhang, Jie Zhang, Jinwei Chen & Ruilin Wang

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  1. Anfeng Li
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  2. Gang Wang
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Correspondence to Gang Wang or Ruilin Wang.

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Li, A., Wang, G., Wei, X. et al. Highly selective sulfonated poly(ether ether ketone)/polyvinylpyrrolidone hybrid membranes for vanadium redox flow batteries. J Mater Sci 55, 16822–16835 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-020-05228-8

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