Scientific Achievement
PIM-1 membranes undergo time-dependent resistance rise upon contact with flowing nonaqueous electrolytes; however, the increase in resistance is reversible and performance can be recovered by solvent washing.
Significance and Impact
This work seeks to isolate performance decay due to evolutions in the membrane resistance of PIM-1 for other confounding factors. Understanding, controlling, and, ultimately, mitigating resistance rise in PIM-1 may extend the lifetime of nonaqueous redox flow batteries employing this nanoporous membrane platform.
Research Details
- We evaluate the wettability, wetting dynamics, and swelling of PIM-1 membrane in contact with different solvents.
- A single electrolyte flow cell is used to quantify changes in the area-specific resistance of cell with PIM membranes of different thicknesses as a function of time and electrolyte flowrate.
- Resistance rise was found to be dependent on membrane thickness, electrolyte flow rate, and solvent washing.
- Performance decay is not the result of irreversible chemical decomposition, and can be recovered by in situ or ex situ solvent washing with acetonitrile.
