Scientific Achievement
A team of Foundry staff and users have developed a model showing how different battery membranes impact the lifetime of the battery and used it to create a new versatile and affordable battery membrane that is stable at high pH.
Significance and Impact
Uncovering the simple relationship between a battery membrane and a cell’s cycle life allows for prediction of the lifetime of the cell. It will greatly accelerate identification of membranes for long-lasting grid-scale batteries.
Research Details
- The research team evaluated aqueous-compatible polymers of intrinsic microporosity (AquaPIMs) embedded with amidoxime molecules in Zn-based electrochemical cells and found they were very stable at high pH and exhibited both high conductivity and high transport selectivity.
- The structure and stability of the AquaPIM membrane was confirmed by studies at the ALS and NERSC, respectively.
- The researchers’ model ties battery performance to membrane performance, predicting the lifetime and efficiency of a flow battery, and likely applies to other AquaPIM variants and other electrochemical cell systems.
