Contrasting Miscibility of Ionic Liquid Membranes for Nearly Perfect Proton Selectivity in Aqueous Redox Flow Batteries

Abstract Ion‐selective membranes are widely used in various energy storage applications. However, conventional polymer‐based ion‐selective membranes, such as Nafion, are not perfectly ion‐selective, leading to a significant permeation of undesirable ionic species. As the imperfect ion‐selectivity of membranes leads to the failure of energy storage devices, much effort is devoted to improving membrane ion‐selectivity. Herein, an immiscible liquid‐state membrane is introduced for aqueous redox flow batteries. As hydrophobic ionic liquids are immiscible with aqueous catholyte and anolyte solutions, they separate the two without crossover. This property renders them suitable for use as a membrane for aqueous redox flow batteries. In addition, ionic liquids with long side alkyl chains, such as 1‐hexyl‐3‐methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (HMIM‐TFSI), are miscible with sulfuri…