J.C. Schuurman
University of Canterbury, Canterbury, New Zealand
Keywords: Ionowax, ionic, membrane, conduction, proton, selective, energy, batteries, electrolytic, catalysis, storage, renewable, redox-flow, affordable, robust.
Proton exchange membranes are a critical component in an array of technologies such as batteries, fuel cells, and electrolytic/electrocatalytic devices used in military, aerospace and commercial industries. They are used to separate different chemical components while facilitating the exclusive transfer protons between them. To achieve this requires engineering of the membrane architecture at both the micro and macro scales utilizing costly physical and chemical manufacturing processes, making these membranes, and the devices that use them, expensive. By utilizing the chemistry and architecture of lipid-bilayers found in the cells of biological organism we are able to manufacture a proton exchange membrane that performs just as well as those used in industry, and at a faction of the cost. Furthermore, this unique architecture means that proton transfer take place via an entirely different mechanism of action without the need for ion channels across the membrane. As a result, our patented membranes are extremely cheap to manufacture, are resistant to broad range of different solvents and have a very high degree of ion selectivity meaning that these membranes can be immediately implemented into current technologies such as energy storage devices, reducing their manufacturing cost and improving their lifetimes.