Energy Storage Science and Technology ›› 2020, Vol. 9 ›› Issue (3): 707-713.doi: 10.19799/j.cnki.2095-4239.2020.0058

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The effect of carbon cloth electrode material on the performance of vanadium redox flow battery

YANG Hong(), LEMMON John, MIAO Ping, LIU Qinghua()   

  1. National Institute of Clean-and-Low-Carbon Energy, Beijing 102211, China
  • Received:2020-01-20 Revised:2020-02-28 Online:2020-05-05 Published:2020-05-11
  • Contact: Qinghua LIU E-mail:hong.yang.cq@chnenergy.com.cn;qinghua.liu.n@chnenergy.com.cn

Abstract:

Carbon cloth has played a vital role in battery performance evaluations owing to its low price and abundant pore structure that promotes the reaction mass-transfer process. However, the structure and performance of carbon cloth have not been systematically researched. In this work, porous carbon cloth was used as the electrode material in all-vanadium flow batteries. The surface structures and morphologies of different electrodes were studied by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, mercury intrusion porosimetry, and other characterization methods. Moreover, the electrochemical performances of the batteries were assessed using polarization curves and chargedischarge tests. A high degree of disorder, abundant defects, high surface content of the carbonyl functional group, and high porosity were found to increase the effective contact area between the electrode and electrolyte, provide more active sites in the redox reaction, and promote the oxygen transfer from H2O to VO2+ and the redox reaction between vanadium ions. Consequently, the battery performance was significantly improved. In evaluation tests, the cell delivered high power density and good cycle stability. Under a current density of 100 mA/cm2, the cell achieved a power density of 686.2 mW/cm2, and its current, voltage, and energy efficiencies were 97.5%, 84.6%, and 82.4%, respectively. Additionally, the chargedischarge performance remained high under 100300 mA/cm2 discharge conditions.

Key words: redox flow battery, carbon cloth electrode materials, surface structure

CLC Number: