萝莉社

A team of chemists and engineers from Imperial College London and the University of Edinburgh have collaborated on the development of a new generation of ion-conducting membranes based on polymers of intrinsic microporosity and demonstrated their exceptional performance in organic-based redox flow batteries (RFB) chemistries. RFBs are a promising grid-scale energy storage technology for the integration of electricity generated from intermittent renewables into the power grid. Membranes are a crucial component in flow batteries, allowing the conduction of charge-carrier ions but minimizing the crossover of redox-active species, and they contribute up to 40% of the RFB capital cost. Commercial Nafion membranes are widely used, but they are expensive, poorly selective towards redox-active molecules and are produced by environmentally damaging processes that involve the use of poly-fluoroalkyl substances, known as forever chemicals.