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Experimental set‐up of vanadium redox flow batteries (A) exploded view of the cells and (B) Nafion membrane‐ and ABPBI membrane‐based cell connected to the peristaltic pumps
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Vanadium redox flow batteries are receiving great attention due to their capabilities of offering multi‐scale energy‐storage and cross‐contamination‐free system. Ion‐exchange membrane, which is one of the critical components in the vanadium redox flow battery system, simultaneously prevents the cross‐mixing of active vanadium‐species, and facilitat...
Citations
... Nafion 117 �0.1 [64] �0.1 [65] 54° [ 66] 6.7 � 0.4 PVDF-HFP �1.6×10 À 3 [62] �1.5×10 À 11 [57] 132° [ 58] 17.1 � 0.9 Figure 1. (a) Faradic efficiency and (b) ammonia yield for Nafion and PANI with Ru, Fe 2 O 3 , and V 8 C 7 at the applied potential of À 0.2 V, À 0.6 V, and À 0.2 V vs RHE, respectively. ...
Nitrogen electrofixation under ambient conditions is a promising approach to synthesize ammonia sustainably but improving the yield and efficiency remains a challenge. This is due to the competition between the nitrogen electrofixation and hydrogen evolution reactions, which can be depressed through appropriate working electrode design. This study investigated the influence of the catalyst‐binder configuration on ammonia yield and Faradic efficiency. A series of working electrodes were tested in an aqueous system, with the proton and electron transfer on the working electrode found to be dependent on the catalyst material, binder material, and binder hydrophobicity. The use of a binder with low proton/electron conductivity increased Faradic efficiency by hindering the hydrogen evolution reaction and reducing charge transfer to the catalytic material. Utilising a hydrophobic binder significantly improved ammonia yield. Furthermore, nitrogen sorption experiments revealed that the catalyst‘s nitrogen affinity exerts a greater influence on ammonia yield than the binder‘s affinity. The best performance was observed for a semi‐conductive catalyst based on vanadium, integrated within a highly hydrophobic perfluorinated binder. At ambient conditions in 0.1 M hydrogen chloride, 39.3±4.3 μgh-1mgcat.-1 ${\mu g{{\rm \ }h}^{-1}{\rm \ }{mg}_{cat.}^{-1}}$ of ammonia was synthesized with 38.5±4.5 % Faradic efficiency at −0.2 V versus a reversible hydrogen electrode.
... 1,2 The vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) is considered the most promising storage technology due to its attractive characteristics that include a flexible design, high safety, and long life. 3,4 With the expiration of the basic VRFB patent, various companies have shown interest in developing this technology while research grew worldwide in a wide range of VRFB areas. 5 Current VRFB systems have operation costs rated between 550 and 650 $/kWh, a level judged too high to be broadly accepted by the industry. ...
... The PDEC The cost of the equipment of the PEEK synthesis part is estimated starting from the already known investment capital 10 with the cost curve method. 35 method uses Equation 3 and Table 2 to estimate the investment cost necessary to produce 3D-SPEEK membranes. Table 2 lists the factors considered to estimate the fixed capital investment required for the plant, reflecting all factors as a fraction of the cost of purchased equipment. ...
The membrane is a central component in the commercialization of vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB), with Nafion® being the preferred material for those membrane. Nafion® suffers however from high vanadium crossover and high cost, thus limiting its wider commercial application in VRFB. To address this, studies have focused on sulfonated polyether ether ketone (SPEEK) as an alternative material. This work presents an economic study on the production costs of 3D printed SPEEK (3D-SPEEK) membranes for VRFB, with multiple production scenarios evaluated. This analysis relies on the performances of 3D-SPEEK membranes prepared in our laboratory, which have shown higher coulombic efficiency and lower vanadium ions diffusion than Nafion® membranes. Results from the economic analysis revealed that the cost of the 3D-SPEEK membrane varies from 567.77 to 79.35 €/m2 depending on the production scheme and scale used. Production costs lower than commercial Nafion® membranes are achieved when a large production scheme is used. Further analysis shows that 3D-SPEEK membranes might even be cheaper than conventional SPEEK membranes if their printing time is reduced.
... It is known that the membrane's water uptake depends on hydrophilicity [65], porosity [66], ion-exchange capacity (IEC) [67] and other parameters. In this case, it seems the increase in water uptake cannot be due to improving hydrophilicity. ...
Nowadays, brine produced in the Reverse Osmosis (RO) seawater desalination plants is a significant and largely untapped source of critical minerals and metals, which is usually discharged into the seas as wastewater. As a front face stage in the brine mining process, nanofiltration (NF) membranes can be used to separate brine stream into monovalent and multivalent ion-rich streams. Since high separation factors are required in seawater RO brine, polyelectrolyte multilayers with Layer-by-Layer (LbL) technique were used in this study to modify commercial polyamide NF membranes and improve their performance. Two common polyelectrolytes, poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride) (PDADMAC) and poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS) were coated onto two poly-piperazine polyamide NF membranes (NF270 and Desal-5 DL). The effects of the bilayers number and the outer layer charge on membranes’ performance were studied using two crossflow filtration setups with two different membrane sizes to find the membrane with the higher monovalent/multivalent separation factor. Desal-5 DL membrane coated with 5.5 bilayers provided the highest selectivity factors for mono/multivalent cations (> 21), the highest average rejection of multivalent cations group (about 95.7%) for short-term experiments. Another interesting result was the increase in water permeance of the Desal-5 DL membrane after it was coated with 5.5 bLs (indicating more than 20% improvement in pure water permeance). In addition, the stability test with brines at 20 bar showed that this membrane was stable over an extended period of filtration (22 hours) with an even higher selectivity factor of 34 and multivalent cations rejection of 97.7% on average.
... It is evident that the imidazole density increases in the order of OPBI < p -PBI < ABPBI, which means ABPBI has the highest basicity and the shortest hopping sites interval for protons along the polymers. Besides, the use of ABPBI might bring down the cost of the membrane since its synthesis does not require expensive chemicals [58] . As expected, the ADL increased in the order of OPBI < p -PBI < ABPBI. ...
Redox flow batteries (RFBs) have attracted immense attention as one of the most promising grid-scale energy storage technologies. However, designing cost-effective systems with high efficiency and long cycle life requires more advanced ion-conducting membranes. Polybenzimidazole (PBI), doped with acid or alkaline solutions, has been widely recognized as one of the most promising low-cost non-fluorinated ion-conducting membranes for RFBs, primarily because of their well-known excellent chemical stability and ultra-low cross-contamination, which have allowed RFBs to run steadily for an impressively long term. In addition, the membranes are free from the issue of acid or alkali leakage and keep stable conductivity since the working medium in RFBs are acid or alkali solutions in most cases. In this review, recent progress on PBI-based membranes for RFBs is summarized. First, the ever-proposed ion conductive mechanisms in acid- and alkali-doped PBI membranes are presented from the view of intermolecular interactions. Then, recent efforts in improving PBI-based membranes for RFBs, from chemistry to microstructure, are highlighted. Last, the challenges and future perspectives in this research field are elaborated.
This volume describes recent advancements in the synthesis and applications of nanomaterials for energy harvesting and storage, and optoelectronics technology for next-generation devices.
This book consists of 15 chapters that cover a range of nanomaterials and the corresponding technologies.
The initial chapters summarize the recent progress in applications of nanomaterials like carbon nanotubes, metal oxides, and graphene oxides-based hybrids in solar energy harvesting using recent photovoltaic technologies. These chapters are followed by reviews on nanowires, graphene quantum dots, boron nitrides, carbon nano onions and metal organic frameworks leading to the fabrication of supercapacitors, bio-sensors, lithium-ion batteries and hydrogen storage applications. The final set of chapters cover the next generation fuel cells using polymer nanocomposites, ferroelectric liquid crystal nanocomposite and optoelectronic nanomaterials for optical memory and displays devices.
Key Features:
Describes the types of nanomaterials that are fundamental to energy storage and electronic systems. These materials include nanowires, graphene quantum dots, boron nitrides, carbon nano onions and metal organic frameworks (MOFs), Covers the processes for nanomaterial synthesis Reviews important photovoltaics applications of nanomaterials, including their use in energy storage, batteries and optoelectronic devices Discusses the application of nanomaterials in electronics for sensing, bioelectronics, memory, nanocomposites for fuel cells, ferroelectric liquid crystal nanocomposites and optoelectronic nanomaterials for optical memory and displays Provides references for further reading in every chapter.
The volume informs engineers, academic researchers, research scholars and graduate students working in the area of nanomaterials for energy generation, storage and optoelectronics.
Achieving high proton conductivity, low vanadium ion permeability, and high chemical stability using a single material remains a key challenge for hydrocarbon-based membranes for use in vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs). Herein, we report amorphous poly(2,5-benzimidazole) (ABPBI) membranes with alkyl spacers which can meet these requirements. Spacer-grafted poly(2,5-benzimidazole)s (ABPBIs) with different grafting ratios were synthesized via an N-substitution reaction and denoted as ABPBI-0, -10, -25, -40, and -50, respectively. The structure to battery performance relationship was investigated through spectroscopic and electrochemical analysis. As the grafting ratio increased, the microstructure of the ABPBI derivative membranes was transformed from a semicrystalline to an amorphous structure because of reduced chain packing, increasing H2SO4-absorption capability and consequently reducing area-specific resistances. Also, they exhibited lower vanadium permeabilities compared with Nafion 115 owing to Donnan exclusion effect. As a combined effect of these characteristics, the membranes outperformed Nafion 115 membrane with notably high coulomb efficiencies and energy efficiencies. Furthermore, a grafted ABPBI membrane showed stable battery cycling performance more than 500 cycles at 200 mAcm-2, and 1000 h continuous operation at 1C-rate, demonstrating excellent chemical stability against highly oxidizing VO2+ solution.
