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Commercial polybenzimidazole membranes for flow batteries

Authors： HU Lei1,2, YAN Xiaoming1, HE Gaohong1, GONG Bo2, GUO Tianshui2, FAN Zipeng2, ZHOU Junpeng2, XU Shengquan2, WANG Ronggang2

Units： 1. State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Research and Development Center of Membrane Science and Technology, School of Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China; 2.Canmax Technologies Co., Ltd., Suzhou 215121, China

KeyWords： flow batteries; commercial polybenzimidazole membranes; ion transport channels; ion selectivity; stability

ClassificationCode：TQ028

year,volume(issue):pagination： 2026,46(2):163-170

Abstract：

The large-scale application of flow batteries demands high-performance and low-cost ion exchange membranes. However, commercial perfluorosulfonic acid membranes suffer from low ion selectivity and high costs. Therefore, low-cost polybenzimidazole (PBI)-based membranes have become a research focus for industrialization. Based on this, the joint research team from Dalian University of Technology and Canmax Technologies Co., Ltd. designed an uncharged gradient ion exchange membrane structure using high-molecular-weight PBI as the matrix, enabling precise ion sieving through narrow and interconnected ultra-thin ion channels. A series of commercial PBI-based membranes were developed. The fundamental properties and battery performances of the membranes at the pilot scale were systematically tested. The area resistance of PBI-based membranes was comparable to that of perfluorosulfonic acid membranes, while the vanadium ion permeability was reduced by nearly two orders of magnitude, thus breaking the trade-off effect among conductivity, selectivity and stability. Vanadium flow battery (VFB) assembled with the first-generation PBI membrane (PB 30) achieved a cycle life of over 12 000 cycles at 160 mA/cm2. The second-generation PBI membrane (FB 30), designed with a tailored molecular structure to reduce mass transfer resistance, delivered an energy efficiency of 82.3% at 200 mA/cm2 in VFB, outperforming the perfluorosulfonic acid membrane (78.7%), and had been cycled for over 2 600 cycles at 160 mA/cm2.

Funds：

国家自然科学基金项目（2253000382）；辽宁滨海实验室颠覆性技术类基金项目（LBLE-2023-03）; 中国博士后科学基金资助项目（2024M762321）；江苏省基础研究计划资助（BK20250444）

AuthorIntro：

胡磊（1994-），男，四川内江人，工程师，博士，研究方向为液流电池膜

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