Title: A hydrocarbon/Nafion bilayer membrane with a mechanical nano-fastener for vanadium redox flow batteries

Author: Soohyun Kim, Seongmin Yuk, Hyungyu Kim, Chanyong Choi, Riyul Kim, Jang Young Lee, Young Taik Hong and Hee-Tak Kim*

Journal: Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 2017, 5, 17279-17286

Inside front cover

Abstract: A bilayered hydrocarbon/Nafion membrane with a ball and socket joint interface is presented to overcome the chemical stability issue of hydrocarbon membrane in VRFB application. Protective coating of chemically stable Nafion ionomers on hydrocarbon membranes can retard the degradation, and the ball and socket joint structure strongly binds the two chemically dissimilar membranes without generating additional interfacial resistance for proton conduction.