Issue 22, 2021

Performance and stability comparison of Aemion™ and Aemion+™ membranes for vanadium redox flow batteries

Abstract

Anion exchange membranes (AEMs) have shown a significant rise in performance and durability within recent years for applications such as electrolysis and fuel cells. However, in vanadium redox-flow batteries, their use is of particular interest to lower costs and self-discharge rates compared to conventional perfluorinated sulfonic acid-based ionomers such as Nafion. In this work we evaluate the properties of two commercial AEMs, Aemion™ and Aemion+™, based on ex situ characterizations, an accelerated stress test degradation study (>1000 hours storage in highly oxidizing VO2+ electrolyte at 35 °C) and electrochemical battery cycle tests. All membranes feature low ionic resistances of below 320 mΩ cm2, enabling battery cycling at 100 mA cm−2. Aemion shows considerable VO2+ formation within a VO2+ stress test, whereas Aemion+ remains almost unaffected in the 1058 h stress test. Evaluating self-discharge data, cycling performance and durability data, Aemion+™ (50 μm thickness) features the best properties for vanadium redox-flow battery operation.

Graphical abstract: Performance and stability comparison of Aemion™ and Aemion+™ membranes for vanadium redox flow batteries

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
08 feb 2021
Accepted
30 mar 2021
First published
07 apr 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

RSC Adv., 2021,11, 13077-13084

Performance and stability comparison of Aemion™ and Aemion+™ membranes for vanadium redox flow batteries

B. Shanahan, B. Britton, A. Belletti, S. Vierrath and M. Breitwieser, RSC Adv., 2021, 11, 13077 DOI: 10.1039/D1RA01079D

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