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Chinese scientists successfully develop new ion-exchange membrane
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing (Reporter Zhang Quan) Ion-exchange membranes have broad application prospects in clean energy, energy conservation and emission reduction, energy conversion and storage. Chinese scientists have designed a new type of ion membrane, for the first time to achieve approximately frictionless ion conduction in the membrane, which is expected to greatly improve the efficiency of energy storage equipment such as flow batteries.
The reporter learned from the Chinese Academy of Sciences that the research was completed by the team of Professor Xu Tongwen and Professor Yang Zhengjin of the University of Science and Technology of China, and the relevant results were recently published in the international academic journal Nature.
Ion membrane is a key component of electrochemical devices or equipment such as liquid flow batteries and fuel cells. It not only blocks the active material between the positive and negative electrodes to prevent short circuit, but also ensures that the ions pass through efficiently during the charge and discharge process and reduce the loss. However, the traditional ion membrane generally has the problem of mutual restriction of conductivity and selectivity.
"Just like sieving sand with a sieve, the best sieve is one that can block coarse sand (selectivity) and allow fine sand to pass through quickly (conductivity). However, with small sieve holes, fine sand flows slowly; with large sieve holes, coarse sand and fine sand can pass through." Xu Tongwen said that the research focus of ion-exchange membrane is to build an efficient channel in the membrane that only allows "fine sand" to pass quickly.
In this study, the team innovatively designed a microporous framework ion membrane material with a through sub-nanometer ion channel, and chemically modified the channel, which not only solved the problem of ion channel aging and water absorption swelling in traditional ion membrane materials, but also had high selectivity and high conductivity.
It is reported that in such a membrane, the ions achieve near-frictionless conduction. The flow battery assembled using this membrane can charge and discharge current density of 500 mA per square centimeter, which is more than 5 times the current value of similar products. "Nature" reviewers believe that this ion membrane in the flow battery showed extraordinary performance.
"The design concept of the microporous framework ion membrane involved in this achievement can also be extended to other functional framework polymer membranes, and the directional design of high-performance membrane materials can be carried out on this basis." Yang Zhengjin said.
(Editor: Li Yihuan, Hao Mengjia)
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