Misgina Tilahun Tsehaye
Country
Ethiopia
Institution
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ESR project
The aims of this project is to synthesize and characterize advanced anion-exchange membranes (AEM) for alkaline zinc slurry-air flow batteries. Two major characteristics of such membranes are good chemical (alkaline) stability and high hydroxide ion conductivity. In this work, poly-(phenylene oxide) (PPO) was chosen as polymer backbone because of its high glass transition temperature of 215 °C inducing an excellent mechanical strength, good chemical, especially in alkaline medium, stability and commercial availability in a reasonable cost. The determination of the chemical stability of the membrane will be one of the first point to be evaluated in order to select the more relevant chemical structure of the membrane. Afterwards the ionic conduction and mechanical properties will be optimized by the modulation of block lengths, concentration and nature of the ionic function. The morphology (characterization of phase separation), the electrochemical, chemical and mechanical properties of the membranes will be deeply investigated. In order to improve the mechanical properties (if needed), crosslinked membranes or composite membranes will be performed and studied. The more relevant membranes will be fully characterized in redox flow cells together with Fraunhofer ICT (Germany).
Background
MSc
Erasmus Mundus Master in Membrane Engineering
(University Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier, University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague – všcht, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa and KU Leuven)
MSc thesis: Development and characterization of nanofiltration membranes with stability to Hydrogen Peroxide
(KU Leuven, Belgium)
BSc:
Biological and Chemical Engineering
(Mekelle Institute of Technology, Mekelle University, Ethiopia)
Publications
List of publications on Google Scholar