According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese researchers have designed a new type of ion transport membrane to improve the efficiency of energy storage equipment such as flow batteries. Ion transport membranes have broad application prospects in clean energy, emission reduction, energy conversion and storage. The new design allows for virtually frictionless ion transport within the triazine framework membranes, increasing the efficiency of such equipment.
The research was led by Professor Xu Tongwen and Professor Yang Zhengjin from the China University of Science and Technology, and the results were published this week in the journal Nature. An essential component of electrochemical devices or equipment such as ion transport membranes, flow batteries, and fuel cells. In addition to allowing ions to pass through during the charging and discharging processes, they also prevent the transfer of active substances between the positive and negative electrodes to prevent short circuits.
From the research team, Prof. Xu concludes from the study, “Just like sifting sand with a sieve… The best sieve is the sieve that can block coarse sand (selectivity) and allow fine sand to pass quickly (conductivity). However, when the sieve is small, the fine sand flows slowly, while the large sieves allow both coarse and fine sand to pass through.” Xu said the focus of research on ion membranes is to create efficient channels in the membrane that allow only "fine sand" to pass quickly.
Innovative in their research, the team designed a microporous framed ion membrane material with sub-nanometer ion channels and chemically modified the channels. According to the abstract of the research paper, the new type of membrane provides an almost frictionless flow of ions. The charge and discharge current density of a flow battery combined with this membrane can reach 500 milliamps per square centimeter, which is more than five times the current value of similar products.