Computational Design of Polymer Membranes for Energy Conversion and Storage

液流电池为固定能量存储提供了几个优势：动力和能量分离的能力，可以运行多次充放电循环，以及固有的安全级别。然而，由于钒的高成本，商业上可用的钒液流电池系统是昂贵的。该项目将开发低成本的氢-金属氧化还原液流电池，涉及催化剂、膜和低成本氧化还原活性电解液的开发，如含锰和含铁的氧化还原物种。本项目将侧重于氢-金属氧化还原液流电池质子传导膜分离器的计算建模和测试。该项目的主要目标将是开发高质子传导性(室温下高达100毫秒/厘米)，并将膜的面积比电阻(ASR)降至0.5cm2以下，同时保持对氧化还原活性物种的选择性。

Flow batteries offer several advantages for stationary energy storage: the ability to decouple power and energy, to run for many charge/discharge cycles, and intrinsic levels of safety. However commercially available vanadium flow battery systems are expensive, due to the high cost of vanadium. The project will develop low-cost hydrogen-metal redox flow batteries, involving the development of catalysts, membranes and low-cost redox-active electrolytes such as manganese and iron-containing redox species. This project will focus on computational modelling and testing of proton-conducting membrane separators for hydrogen-metal redox flow batteries. The key objectives of the project will be the development of high proton conductivity (up to 100 mS/cm at room temperature) and reduce the area specific resistance (ASR) of membranes to below 0.5 cm2 while retaining the selectivity towards redox active species.