Medical University of South Carolina

Andrew Pingitore

Brian C Benicewicz

Laura A Murdock

Fei Huang

Lihui Wang

Disclosed are redox flow battery membranes, redox flow batteries incorporating the membranes, and methods of forming the membranes. The membranes include a polybenzimidazole gel membrane that is capable of incorporating a high liquid content without loss of structure that is formed according to a process that includes in situ hydrolysis of a polyphosphoric acid solvent. The membranes are imbibed with a redox flow battery supporting electrolyte such as sulfuric acid and can operate at very high ionic conductivities of about 100 mS/cm or greater. Redox flow batteries incorporating the PBI-based membranes can operate at high current densities of about 100 mA/cmor greater.

Polybenzimidazole (PBI) membranes for redox flow batteries

Disclosed are redox flow battery membranes, redox flow batteries incorporating the membranes, and methods of forming the membranes. The membranes include a densified polybenzimidazole gel membrane that is capable of incorporating a high liquid content without loss of structure that is formed according to a process that includes in situ hydrolysis of a polyphosphoric acid solvent followed by densification of the gel membrane. The densified membranes are then imbibed with a redox flow battery supporting electrolyte such as sulfuric acid and can operate at very high ionic conductivities of about 50 mS/cm or greater and with low permeability of redox couple ions, e.g. vanadium ions, of about 10cm/s or less. Redox flow batteries incorporating the membranes can operate at current densities of about 50 mA/cmor greater.

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Columbia, SC, United States of America

Andrew Pingitore