TY - JOUR
T1 - Towards Production of a Highly Catalytic and Stable Graphene-Wrapped Graphite Felt Electrode for Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries
AU - Mousavihashemi, Seyedabolfazl
AU - Murcia-López, Sebastián
AU - Hosseini, Mir Ghasem
AU - Morante, Joan Ramón
AU - Flox, Cristina
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: Authors thank Generalitat de Catalunya for financial support through the CERCA Program, MINECO for additional support by coordinated project ENE2016-80788-C5-5-R, M2E under the Grant No. 2017SGR1246, and Fundación Ramón Areces funding through BAT-LIMET project. S.M.-L. gratefully acknowledges support from Spanish government under Grant no. FJCI-2014-19745. The authors are grateful to the financial support of Iranian National Committee of Nanotechnology in Ministry of Science, Research and Technology and the office of Vice Chancellor in Charge of Research of University of Tabriz.
Funding Information:
Authors thank Generalitat de Catalunya for financial support through the CERCA Program, MINECO for additional support by coordinated project ENE2016-80788-C5-5-R, M2E under the Grant No. 2017SGR1246, and Fundación Ramón Areces funding through BAT-LIMET project. S.M.-L. gratefully acknowledges support from Spanish government under Grant no. FJCI-2014-19745. The authors are grateful to the financial support of Iranian National Committee of Nanotechnology in Ministry of Science, Research and Technology and the office of Vice Chancellor in Charge of Research of University of Tabriz. The authors thank SGL Carbon (Germany) for providing the graphite felt for this work.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2018/12/3
Y1 - 2018/12/3
N2 - Despite the appealing features of vanadium redox flow batteries as a promising energy storage solution, the polarization losses, among other factors, prevent widespread applications. The dominant contribution to these polarization losses is the sluggish (even irreversible) electron-transfer towards reactions, leading to large over-potentials (poor rate capability). In particular, the positive half-cell reaction suffers from a complex mechanism since electron- and oxygen-transfer processes are key steps towards efficient kinetics. Thus, the positive reaction calls for electrodes with a large number of active sites, faster electron transfer, and excellent electrical properties. To face this issue, a graphene-wrapped graphite felt (GO-GF) electrode was synthesized by an electrospray process as a cost-effective and straightforward way, leading to a firm control of the GO-deposited layer-by-layer. The voltage value was optimized to produce a homogeneous deposition over a GF electrode after achieving a stable Taylor cone-jet. The GO-GF electrode was investigated by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in order to elucidate the electrocatalytic properties. Both analyses reflect this excellent improvement by reducing the over-potentials, improving reversibility, and enhancing collected current density. These findings confirm that the GO-GF is a promising electrode for high-performance VRFB, overcoming the performance-limiting issues in a positive half-reaction.
AB - Despite the appealing features of vanadium redox flow batteries as a promising energy storage solution, the polarization losses, among other factors, prevent widespread applications. The dominant contribution to these polarization losses is the sluggish (even irreversible) electron-transfer towards reactions, leading to large over-potentials (poor rate capability). In particular, the positive half-cell reaction suffers from a complex mechanism since electron- and oxygen-transfer processes are key steps towards efficient kinetics. Thus, the positive reaction calls for electrodes with a large number of active sites, faster electron transfer, and excellent electrical properties. To face this issue, a graphene-wrapped graphite felt (GO-GF) electrode was synthesized by an electrospray process as a cost-effective and straightforward way, leading to a firm control of the GO-deposited layer-by-layer. The voltage value was optimized to produce a homogeneous deposition over a GF electrode after achieving a stable Taylor cone-jet. The GO-GF electrode was investigated by cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy in order to elucidate the electrocatalytic properties. Both analyses reflect this excellent improvement by reducing the over-potentials, improving reversibility, and enhancing collected current density. These findings confirm that the GO-GF is a promising electrode for high-performance VRFB, overcoming the performance-limiting issues in a positive half-reaction.
KW - Deposition
KW - Electrocatalysis
KW - Electrode materials
KW - Electrospray
KW - Graphene oxide
KW - Hybrid materials
KW - Reversibility
KW - Vanadium redox flow batteries
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85065557533&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/batteries4040063
DO - 10.3390/batteries4040063
M3 - Article
VL - 4
JO - Batteries
JF - Batteries
SN - 2313-0105
IS - 4
M1 - 63
ER -