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Polymer electrolyte membranes (PEM) are polymers which act as separator in an electrochemical cell and allow ionic charge flow to close the circuit. Widely used membranes are perfluorinated sulfonic-acid (PFSA) ionomers (e.g. Nafion™), a class of ion-conducting polymers with remarkable ion conductivity and chemical-mechanical stability. A nanoscopic water system around the sulfonic acid capped side-chains of the otherwise hydrophobic polymer allows the ion transport. Only approx. 14 molecules of water per sulfonic group are present in the fully hydrated state. In vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB) ideally only protons are transported. The weak ion selectivity of Nafion™ is the main cause for the transportation of vanadium, briefly vanadium crossover, in VRFBs a system we have investigated more closely, lately. The consequences of crossover are a concentration imbalance and a self-discharge of the battery, which leads to a decrease of the capacity. The development of efficient energy storage systems is crucial for the transformation towards a renewable energy based economy. The VRFB has a great potential as a commercial electrochemical energy storage system due to properties including, but not limited to, no cross-contamination, a long cycle-life and a theoretically unlimited capacity. VRFB consists of two half-cells, which are linked to electrolyte tanks and separated by a membrane. The membrane plays a major role in overall cell performance. So far, vanadium transportation models, which include diffusion, migration, electroosmotic convection and pressure gradients, are inconsistent. There is no agreement in the literature on the diffusion coefficients of vanadium species (e.g. published diffusion coefficients of V2+ are located between 3.13·10-12 m²s-1 and 9.44·10-12 m²s-1) indicate that thevanadium crossover is not well understood and there is a lack on a more fundamental level. Since the membrane transport is the rate-determining step of the crossover as well as of the proton exchange it is extremely important to understand these phenomena on a fundamental level. This will eventually allow us to design better membranes. Alternative materials need to show equivalent performance compared with Nafion™ and ideally be more selective regarding ion cross-membrane transport.There are several options to approach the chemistry i.e. the interaction of dissolved and bound ions inside the confined water body of ionomeric membranes. Vanadium ions are a versatile model as UV/VIS data can be used to distinguish between the 5 species V2+, V3+, VO2+, VO2+ and V2O33+ of the electrolyte. Infrared spectroscopy has been applied to study the interaction of sulfonic groups and the ions. Molecular dynamic modeling is another approach to study the distribution and distances of ions. We now introduce X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy (XANES) to study species and species changes inside Nafion™ and a novel membrane based on poly(1,1-difluoroethylene) (PVDF). We evaluated the methods and investigated the influence of irradiation, temperature and hydration on the measurements.
A major source of capacity fade of the common vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) is the vanadium ion transport through the separator. However, different transport models disagree significantly in the diffusion coefficient for the different V species and the influence of different transport mechanisms. The underlying hypothesis of this work is that reactions inside the membrane are partly responsible for these discrepancies. Accordingly, it was investigated if redox reactions inside the nanoscopic water body of Nafion 117 can occur. X-ray absorption near edge structure spectroscopy (XANES) was used to distinguish between the different V species inside hydrated Nafion 117 and novel PVDF-based membranes. It was validated that the speciation of vanadium can be performed using the pre-edge peak energy and intensity. The experiments were performed as follows: strips of the membrane were exposed from one site to a V3+ solution (green) and from the other site to a VO2+ solution (yellow). The ions could diffuse into the membrane from both sides. A change of color of the membrane strip was observed. The blue color in the middle of the strip indicated that VO2+ was formed where V3+ and VO2+ got in contact. Using XANES this reaction inside Nafion was proven.