Hydrophilic microporous membranes for selective ion separation and flow-battery energy storage

Tan, Rui; Wang, Anqi; Malpass-Evans, Richard; Williams, Rhodri; Zhao, Evan Wenbo; Liu, Tao; Ye, Chunchun; Zhou, Xiaoqun; Darwich, Barbara Primera; Fan, Zhiyu; Turcani, Lukas; Jackson, Edward; Chen, Linjiang; Chong, Samantha Y.; Li, Tao; Jelfs, Kim E.; Cooper, Andrew I.; Brandon, Nigel P.; Grey, Clare P.; McKeown, Neil B.; Song, Qilei

doi:10.1038/s41563-019-0536-8

Hydrophilic microporous membranes for selective ion separation and flow-battery energy storage

Journal Article · Mon Dec 02 00:00:00 EST 2019 · Nature Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0536-8· OSTI ID:1616156

Tan, Rui ^[1]; ^[1]; Malpass-Evans, Richard ^[2]; Williams, Rhodri ^[2]; Zhao, Evan Wenbo ^[3]; Liu, Tao ^[4]; Ye, Chunchun ^[2]; Zhou, Xiaoqun ^[1]; Darwich, Barbara Primera ^[1]; Fan, Zhiyu ^[1]; ^[5]; ^[5]; Chen, Linjiang ^[6]; ^[6]; Li, Tao ^[7]; Jelfs, Kim E. ^[5]; Cooper, Andrew I. ^[6]; Brandon, Nigel P. ^[5]; Grey, Clare P. ^[3]; ^[2] more »

Imperial College London, London (United Kingdom). Barrer Centre
Univ. of Edinburgh, Scotland (United Kingdom)
Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom)
Univ. of Cambridge (United Kingdom); Tongji Univ., Shanghai (China). Shanghai Key Lab. of Chemical Assessment and Sustainability, Dept. of Chemistry
Imperial College London, London (United Kingdom)
Univ. of Liverpool (United Kingdom). Leverhulme Research Centre for Functional Materials Design
Northern Illinois Univ., DeKalb, IL (United States); Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States). X-ray Science Division, Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR)

Membranes with fast and selective ion transport are widely used for water purification and devices for energy conversion and storage including fuel cells, redox flow batteries and electrochemical reactors. However, it remains challenging to design cost-effective, easily processed ion-conductive membranes with well-defined pore architectures. Here in this paper, we report a new approach to designing membranes with narrow molecular-sized channels and hydrophilic functionality that enable fast transport of salt ions and high size-exclusion selectivity towards small organic molecules. These membranes, based on polymers of intrinsic microporosity containing Tröger’s base or amidoxime groups, demonstrate that exquisite control over subnanometre pore structure, the introduction of hydrophilic functional groups and thickness control all play important roles in achieving fast ion transport combined with high molecular selectivity. These membranes enable aqueous organic flow batteries with high energy efficiency and high capacity retention, suggesting their utility for a variety of energy-related devices and water purification processes.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: China Scholarship Council; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC); European Research Council (ERC); European Union (EU) - Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme; Imperial College London; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Scientific User Facilities Division

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-06CH11357

OSTI ID:: 1616156

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1648349

Journal Information:: Nature Materials, Journal Name: Nature Materials Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 19; ISSN 1476-1122

Publisher:: Springer Nature - Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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