Promising Redox Flow Batteries

A special issue of Batteries (ISSN 2313-0105). This special issue belongs to the section "Battery Materials and Interfaces: Anode, Cathode, Separators and Electrolytes or Others".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2023) | Viewed by 9960

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Chemistry, College of Sciences, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China
Interests: polymer electrolyte membrane; anion exchange membrane; high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell; flow battery; water electrolyser
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Yancheng 224051, China
Interests: mathematical modeling for flow batteries; optimization of stack/module design and operational management; electrode design and modification for flow batteries

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

With the development of societies and economies, the energy crisis and the impact of massive carbon dioxide emissions on the environment are becoming more and more serious. The exploration and utilization of large-scale energy storage devices have attracted widespread attention, when unstable and intermittent renewable energies are being used efficiently worldwide. Among many energy storage devices, the redox flow battery (RFB) receives the attention of researchers, which brings advantages such as a quick response, flexible design, high safety, green environmental protection, and a long cycle life. Over the past few decades, RFBs have witnessed significant development: not only has the performance of conventional RFBs improved considerably, but a wide range of new battery chemistries/concepts has also been proposed. This Special Issue will cover various promising RFBs and related materials.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • New redox flow battery and redox couples.
  • Separation membrane materials.
  • Electrode materials.
  • Electrolyte formulation.
  • Stack structural design and optimization.
  • Modeling and simulation.

Dr. Jingshuai Yang
Dr. Hui Chen
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • redox flow battery
  • energy storage
  • membrane and electrode
  • stack cell
  • battery modeling

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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12 pages, 2964 KiB  
Article
Readily Accessible M-Ferrocenyl-Phenyl Sulfonate as Novel Cathodic Electrolyte for Aqueous Organic Redox Flow Batteries
by Dawei Fang, Junzhi Zheng, Xi Li, Diandian Wang, Yuxuan Yang, Zhuling Liu, Zongren Song and Minghua Jing
Batteries 2023, 9(5), 285; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries9050285 - 22 May 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1341
Abstract
Ferrocene derivatives are amongst the most promising electroactive organic electrolytes. The bottleneck problems of their application in aqueous redox flow batteries are their poor solubility and lower potential as well as the complexity of the modification methods to solve these problems. In this [...] Read more.
Ferrocene derivatives are amongst the most promising electroactive organic electrolytes. The bottleneck problems of their application in aqueous redox flow batteries are their poor solubility and lower potential as well as the complexity of the modification methods to solve these problems. In this study, a benzenesulfonic acid group is easily introduced into the ferrocene structure by a mature diazotization reaction, and the synthesized sodium m-phenylferrocene sulfonate BASFc is used as the novel cathodic electroactive electrolyte for AORFB. The hydrophilicity and the electron-absorbing effect of the introduced benzenesulfonic group can effectively improve the water solubility and redox potential of ferrocene. Moreover, the introduction of phenyl extends the conjugated structure of ferrocene and increases its structural dimension, which may be conducive to reducing its membrane permeability and improving the structural stability to some extent. The physical structure and the electrochemical properties of BASFc are studied systematically; the feasibility of its application as a cathodic electrolyte in AORFBs is verified by assembling the half-cell and full-cell. The results verify the good electrochemical reaction kinetics of BASFc in acid electrolyte and the corresponding AORFB shows satisfactory efficiency and stability. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Redox Flow Batteries)
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13 pages, 4613 KiB  
Article
Low Vanadium Permeability Membranes Based on Flexible Hydrophilic Side Chain Grafted Polybenzimidazole/Polymeric Ionic Liquid for VRFBs
by Xiaorui Wang, Shuang Wang, Dan Liang, Yinghe Cui, Xiaodong Wang, Zhipeng Yong, Fengxiang Liu and Zhe Wang
Batteries 2023, 9(2), 141; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries9020141 - 20 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1752
Abstract
Based on amino polybenzimidazoles with flexible hydrophilic side chains (AmPBI-MOE) and polymeric ionic liquid (PIL), a series of composite membranes (AmPBI-MOE-PIL-X) were fabricated for vanadium redox flow battery applications. Here, 1-Bromo-2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethane was grafted onto amino polybenzimidazole (AmPBI) by the method of halogenated hydrocarbons, [...] Read more.
Based on amino polybenzimidazoles with flexible hydrophilic side chains (AmPBI-MOE) and polymeric ionic liquid (PIL), a series of composite membranes (AmPBI-MOE-PIL-X) were fabricated for vanadium redox flow battery applications. Here, 1-Bromo-2-(2-methoxyethoxy)ethane was grafted onto amino polybenzimidazole (AmPBI) by the method of halogenated hydrocarbons, and PIL was synthesized from ionic liquids by in situ radical polymerization to build a hydrogen-bonded cross-linked network within the film. The hydrophilic side chain improves the proton conductivity. With the increase in ionic liquids, the vanadium transmittance and the proton conductivity increase. The AmPBI-MOE-PIL-5 membrane not only exhibits a vanadium ions permeability of 0.88 × 10−9 cm2 min−1, which is much lower than Nafion117 (6.07 × 10−8 cm2 min−1), but also shows a very excellent blocking ability for vanadium ion. The AmPBI-MOE-PIL-5 membrane shows excellent performances at 60 mA cm−2, with VE of 87.93% and EE of 82.87%, both higher than that of Nafion117 membrane in VRFB. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Redox Flow Batteries)
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10 pages, 2100 KiB  
Article
Nitrogen, Phosphorus Co-Doped Graphite Felt as Highly Efficient Electrode for VO2+/VO2+ Reaction
by Zhang Jialin, Liu Yiyang, Lu Shanfu and Xiang Yan
Batteries 2023, 9(1), 40; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries9010040 - 05 Jan 2023
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2158
Abstract
All-vanadium redox flow batteries hold promise for the next-generation grid-level energy storage technology in the future. However, the low electrocatalytic activity of initial graphite felt constrains the development of VRFBs. Furthermore, the positive VO2+/VO2+ reaction involves complex multistep processes [...] Read more.
All-vanadium redox flow batteries hold promise for the next-generation grid-level energy storage technology in the future. However, the low electrocatalytic activity of initial graphite felt constrains the development of VRFBs. Furthermore, the positive VO2+/VO2+ reaction involves complex multistep processes and more sluggish kinetics than negative V2+/V3+ reaction. Therefore, enhancing the kinetics of positive reaction is especially important. Heteroatom doping is one of the effective strategies for preparing carbon electrodes with high electrocatalytic activity and good stability. Here, a nitrogen, phosphorus co-doped graphite felt is prepared. Nitrogen introduces more negative charge into the carbon lattice due to the higher electronegativity, and more oxygen-containing functional groups will be introduced into the carbon lattice due to phosphorus-doped graphite felt. N, P co-doping provides more adsorption sites for vanadium ions. As a result, nitrogen, phosphorus co-doped graphite felt shows high electrochemical activity and good stability, and the corresponding VRFB presents a good voltage efficiency of 75% at a current density of 300 mA cm−2, which is 11% higher than the pristine graphite felt. During 100 charge/discharge cycles, the energy efficiency and voltage efficiency remain at 84% and 86% under the current density of 150 mA cm−2. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Redox Flow Batteries)
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14 pages, 3348 KiB  
Article
High-Performance and Low-Cost Membranes Based on Poly(vinylpyrrolidone) and Cardo-Poly(etherketone) Blends for Vanadium Redox Flow Battery Applications
by Tong Mu, Shifan Leng, Weiqin Tang, Ning Shi, Guorui Wang and Jingshuai Yang
Batteries 2022, 8(11), 230; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries8110230 - 10 Nov 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2071
Abstract
Energy storage systems have aroused public interest because of the blooming development of intermittent renewable energy sources. Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) are the typical candidates owing to their flexible operation and good cycle durability. However, due to the usage of perfluorinated separator [...] Read more.
Energy storage systems have aroused public interest because of the blooming development of intermittent renewable energy sources. Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) are the typical candidates owing to their flexible operation and good cycle durability. However, due to the usage of perfluorinated separator membranes, VRFBs suffer from both high cost and serious vanadium ions cross penetration. Herein, we fabricate a series of low-budget and high-performance blend membranes from polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and cardo-poly(etherketone) (PEKC) for VFRB. A PEKC network gives the membrane excellent mechanical rigidity, while PVP endows the blend membranes with superior sulfonic acid uptake owing to the present N-heterocycle and carbonyl group in PVP, resulting in low area resistance. Meanwhile, blend membranes also display low vanadium ion permeability resulting from the electrostatic repulsion effect of protonated PVP polymer chains towards vanadium ions. Consequently, the 50%PVP-PEKC membrane has a high ionic selectivity of 1.03 × 106 S min cm−3, while that of Nafion 115 is nearly 17 times lower (6.03 × 104 S min cm−3). The VRFB equipped with 50%PVP-PEKC membrane has high coulombic efficiencies (99.3–99.7%), voltage efficiencies (84.6–67.0%) and energy efficiencies (83.9–66.8%) at current densities of 80–180 mA cm−2, and possesses excellent cycle constancy, indicating that low-cost x%PVP-PEKC blend membranes have a great application potentiality for VRFBs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Redox Flow Batteries)
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Review

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13 pages, 3559 KiB  
Review
Modeling and Simulation of Non-Aqueous Redox Flow Batteries: A Mini-Review
by Haotian Zhou, Ruiping Zhang, Qiang Ma, Zhuo Li, Huaneng Su, Ping Lu, Weiwei Yang and Qian Xu
Batteries 2023, 9(4), 215; https://doi.org/10.3390/batteries9040215 - 02 Apr 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2042
Abstract
Redox flow batteries (RFBs) have been widely recognized in the domain of large-scale energy storage due to their simple structure, long lifetime, quick response, decoupling of capacity and power, and structural simplicity. Because of the limited open circuit voltage (OCV) by hydrogen and [...] Read more.
Redox flow batteries (RFBs) have been widely recognized in the domain of large-scale energy storage due to their simple structure, long lifetime, quick response, decoupling of capacity and power, and structural simplicity. Because of the limited open circuit voltage (OCV) by hydrogen and oxygen evolution reactions, together with the relatively low solubility of active species, RFBs with aqueous electrolytes are challenging to reach high energy densities. Researchers have been trying to develop new solvent systems without water to remove the electrochemical window limitation of water and pursue higher cell potential. However, non-aqueous solvents are also hindered by some key problems, such as high viscosity and poor safety. Meeting these challenges require a comprehensive understanding of relevant structural design parameters and multi-variable operation in the non-aqueous flow battery (NAFB) system. Modeling and simulation are not only an effective way to understand the basic mechanism of flow batteries at different scales of size and time but also an ideal tool for optimizing the reaction process, battery assembly, and the whole flow battery installation. This review paper introduces the development of the non-aqueous flow battery, the challenges it faces, and the research progress of related modeling and simulation for verification or optimization. Finally, the future development prospects of the non-aqueous flow battery model are pointed out, especially for those systems and fields that have not yet been explored. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Promising Redox Flow Batteries)
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