Microporous Membranes Team

Qilei Song: Gaining a molecular level understanding of the membranes’ structures and establishing the relationship between polymer structures and transport properties was certainly challenging, as was establishing their functions in battery devices. We knew it wasn’t enough to simply make membranes, we needed to make the membranes work in the device, and we kept this objective front of mind throughout the project.

Qilei Song: Our fantastic team is made up of scientists and engineers with a range of complementary specialisms in everything from synthetic chemistry to computational chemistry, membrane science and engineering, materials characterization, device engineering, electrochemistry and electrochemical engineering.

Anqi Wang: The material design principles demonstrated by our team mark a significant advancement in the development of flow battery membranes, which is very exciting.

Qilei Song: Our research will support the storage of renewable energy from sources such as wind and solar, and therefore help global efforts to combat climate change as we shift away from fossil fuels.

Qilei Song: Our newly developed microporous polymer membranes show great promise for the development of inexpensive electrochemical energy storage and conversion technologies with a long lifetime and could make a real difference to the energy transition.

Qilei Song: We are in close contact with potential industry partners and exploring commercialisation opportunities, so we hope to see the application of our membranes in real life electrochemical devices soon.

Rui Tan: Our team is passionate about putting our skills and experience to use to help solve global challenges such as climate change, but we are also driven by a desire to train undergraduate and master students, so they can learn more about microporous membranes and all their useful qualities.

Kim Jelfs: By working together as a team, we can achieve more collectively than any one of us could individually, and it’s also fun to learn from one another.

Collaboration between chemists and engineers in particular allows for a greater appreciation of the relationship between chemical structure and material function. I believe this type of interdisciplinary cooperation will be key to future breakthroughs.

Qilei Song: A collaborative and inclusive environment is key to good research culture so that each team member has the support they need to fulfil their potential.