Abstract

Ionomer nanocomposite membranes are popular as proton exchange membranes in vanadium redox fow batteries due to their chemical resistance and reduced vanadium ion crossover. However, the reason for the reduced vanadium ion crossover is still insufficient. Herein, the dynamics of water and hydrated vanadium ions in Nafion–NP membranes was investigated via quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS), specially, high-flux backscattering. By comparing the ion dynamics from these two types of ionomer nanocomposite membranes, at different NP concentrations, the impact of SiNPs on the ion transport in these ionomer nanocomposites was better explained, providing deeper insight into the decreased vanadium ion crossover observed for these membranes.