A highly proton-conductive and vanadium-rejected long-side-chain sulfonated polybenzimidazole membrane for redox flow battery

A long-side-chain sulfonated polybenzimidazole (PBI-PS) membrane was successfully prepared by the reaction of PBI with 1, 3-propanesultone for improving the efficiencies of vanadium redox flow battery. The interaction between sulfonic acid and imidazole groups provides the PBI-PS membrane with excellent swelling resistance, leading to a swelling ratio of only 13% for the membrane with IEC of as high as 3.18 mmol g−1. This results in an ultra-low vanadium permeability (6.5 × 10−9 cm2 s−1). The introduction of sulfonic acid-terminated flexible side chain in the membrane also constructs good microphase separation structure, leading to a low area resistance of 0.51 Ω cm2, which is close to Nafion 212 (0.41 Ω cm2). This membrane exhibits excellent cell performance. The voltage and energy efficiencies are up to 90.73% and 89.13% at 80 mA cm−2, respectively. Furthermore, the efficiencies remain constant values for 200 cycles, and no changes in chemical structure and cell efficiencies are observed after 720 h immersion in electrolyte solution.