Huynh Tan Trung Kien, Yang Tong, P S Nayanthara, Yang Yang, Ye Jiaye, Wang Hongxia
School of Chemistry and Physics, Faculty of Science, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, QLD, 4000, Australia.
Centre for Materials Science, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George Street, Brisbane, QLD, 4000, Australia.
Nanomicro Lett. 2025 May 19;17(1):260. doi: 10.1007/s40820-025-01736-x.
While being a promising candidate for large-scale energy storage, the current market penetration of vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) is still limited by several challenges. As one of the key components in VRFBs, a membrane is employed to separate the catholyte and anolyte to prevent the vanadium ions from cross-mixing while allowing the proton conduction to maintain charge balance in the system during operation. To overcome the weakness of commercial membranes, various types of membranes, ranging from ion exchange membranes with diverse functional groups to non-ionic porous membranes, have been designed and reported to achieve higher ionic conductivity while maintaining low vanadium ion permeability, thus enhancing efficiency. In addition, besides overall efficiency, stability and cost-effectiveness of the membrane are also critical aspects that determine the practical applicability of the membranes and thus VRFBs. In this article, we have offered comprehensive insights into the mechanism of ion transportation in membranes of VRFBs that contribute to the challenges and issues of VRFB applications. We have further discussed optimal strategies for solving the trade-off between the membrane efficiency and its durability in VRFB applications. The development of state-of-the-art membranes through various material and structure engineering is demonstrated to reveal the relationship of properties-structure-performance.
尽管全钒液流电池（VRFBs）是大规模储能的一个有前景的候选者，但其当前的市场渗透率仍受到若干挑战的限制。作为VRFBs的关键组件之一，隔膜用于分隔阴极电解液和阳极电解液，以防止钒离子交叉混合，同时允许质子传导以在运行期间维持系统中的电荷平衡。为了克服商业隔膜的弱点，已经设计并报道了各种类型的隔膜，从具有不同官能团的离子交换膜到非离子多孔膜，以在保持低钒离子渗透率的同时实现更高的离子电导率，从而提高效率。此外，除了整体效率之外，隔膜的稳定性和成本效益也是决定隔膜以及VRFBs实际适用性的关键方面。在本文中，我们对VRFBs隔膜中的离子传输机制提供了全面的见解，这些机制导致了VRFBs应用中的挑战和问题。我们进一步讨论了在VRFBs应用中解决隔膜效率与其耐久性之间权衡的最佳策略。通过各种材料和结构工程展示了最先进隔膜的发展，以揭示性能-结构-性能之间的关系。
