Transport properties of electrospun fibrous membranes with controlled anisotropy for flow battery applications

摘要: Flow batteries are a relatively new promising technology for use with intermittent renewables such as solar or wind power. Much of the research performed on flow batteries focuses on cell or electrode chemistry, with very little work being done to optimize the electrodes' physical properties. This work focuses on designing new electrodes with smaller diameter fibers and therefore higher surface area than current flow battery electrodes. Lower fiber diameter will cause losses in transport properties specifically permeability. To combat this, the materials were designed to have varying degrees of anisotropy which would in turn allow for permeability to vary significantly according to direction. Porous polyacrylonitrile mats were electrospun on an in-house built electrospinning setup. A number of materials were made with varying degrees of anisotropy. In-plane gas permeability measurements were performed in both the …