Separator materials are more common in our lives, such as explosion-proof film on automotive glass, protective film on mobile phone panels, etc. What many people don't know is that there is also a separator in our mobile phone battery to prevent the battery from short circuiting and transmitting ions at the same time. After years of research, researchers from the University of Science and Technology of China have designed a new type of ion conduction membrane. This ion membrane is expected to be widely used in energy conversion, large-scale energy storage, and distributed generation. The research results were published in the international academic journal Nature on April 4, Beijing time.
Ion membrane is a flow battery, fuel cell and other electrochemical devices or equipment of the key components, it not only to prevent short circuit, but also to ensure that ions in the charging and discharge process efficient passage, reduce loss, while traditional ion membrane is generally prone to swelling deformation after water absorption, loose structure and other problems, especially after long-term use, structural aging may occur, performance degradation. University of Science and Technology of China researchers developed this kind of new type of ion membrane, solved the problem of ion conductivity and selectivity in the material can not be both, ion transport is more rapid, in the membrane to achieve nearly frictionless conduction, the use of the membrane assembled flow battery, charge and discharge current density can reach 500 mA per square centimeter, compared with the traditional ion membrane is more robust, not easy to age, and will not cause swelling due to water absorption.
It is understood that for many years, the efficient storage and utilization of new energy such as solar energy and wind energy has been an important research and development topic for Chinese researchers. The advent of this domestic ion membrane will break the technical monopoly of foreign products of the same type for many years, greatly improve the efficiency of energy storage equipment such as flow batteries, and is expected to be widely used in the field of energy storage of new energy such as solar energy and wind energy in China. At present, researchers are stepping up the mass production of this type of ion membrane.
Professor Xu Tongwen of the University of Science and Technology of China introduced that we can combine this new type of flow battery energy storage technology with our power grid for household electricity and industrial production. We can also store the electricity generated by solar energy and solar panels, build a power station, and charge cars. In this way, we can achieve energy conservation and environmental protection, and promote our country to achieve the goal of "dual carbon". (CCTV reporter Chu Erjia Wang Shuai)