Membrane-Induced Vanadium Crossover-Blocking Polybenzimidazole Copolymer with Exceptional Proton Selectivity

Bukola, Saheed; Vise, Ashlee; Li, Yuanshun; Goenaga, Gabriel; Zawodzinski, Thomas A.; Blackburn, Jeffrey L.; Pivovar, Bryan

doi:10.1021/acsapm.1c01318

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Title: Membrane-Induced Vanadium Crossover-Blocking Polybenzimidazole Copolymer with Exceptional Proton Selectivity

Journal Article · 27 December 2021 · ACS Applied Polymer Materials

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1021/acsapm.1c01318 · OSTI ID:1839374

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^[1]; Li, Yuanshun ^[2]; Goenaga, Gabriel ^[2];

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National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Broad deployment of redox flow batteries is hindered, in part, due to the lack of highly selective ion-exchange membranes with high proton conductivity. We report a post-functionalization strategy for polybenzimidazole copolymer (PBI-co) membranes by a reacting mixture of concentrated sulfuric and phosphoric acids that led to improved membrane selectivity while retaining high proton conductivity. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed successful sulfonation and protonation of benzimidazole functionalities. PBI-co exhibits a very high room-temperature proton conductivity of 0.138 S cm^-1, as measured by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. PBI-co also demonstrates electromigration crossover mitigation under applied current densities up to 500 mA cm^-2, and voltage pulses up to 1.4 V, while also inhibiting diffusion-driven vanadium crossover for over 20 days. Single-cell vanadium flow battery testing on post-functionalized PBI-co further confirms state-of-the-art battery performance with an ~99.5% Coulombic efficiency at 100 mA cm^-2 and an area-specific resistance of ~20 mO cm² lower than Nafion-212 membrane.

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Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) Program

Grant/Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

OSTI ID:: 1839374

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA--5900-80770; MainId:77554; UUID:08dc48b5-b6c8-413e-8ee6-021dd951aac6; MainAdminID:63561

Journal Information:: ACS Applied Polymer Materials, Journal Name: ACS Applied Polymer Materials Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 4; ISSN 2637-6105

Publisher:: ACS PublicationsCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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25 ENERGY STORAGE
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Title: Membrane-Induced Vanadium Crossover-Blocking Polybenzimidazole Copolymer with Exceptional Proton Selectivity

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