Document Type : Original Article
Authors
Institute of Mechanics, ISRC, Shiraz, Iran
Abstract
In recent years, extensive research has been focused on the key materials of vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) to improve the power and energy density. In a VRFB system, the ion-exchange membrane is an important component, because it is used to separate the positive and negative electrolytes and to allow the transfer of ions. Nafion membrane is now widely used in VRFBs due to its high proton conductivity and remarkable chemical stability. In the present study, the Nafion 117 membrane was subjected to acid-heat pretreatment for utilizing in VRFBs. Three-cell stacks of VRFB were assembled using bare and pretreated membranes, and their performances were evaluated during charge/discharge cycles. The results indicate that acid and heat pretreatment on the Nafion 117 membrane improves the VRFB energy density up to 30%. In addition, the average discharge voltage, which is one of the key parameters in the VRFB performance, is increased from 3.57 V (for the bare membrane) to 3.9 V (for the pretreated membrane). This helps to reduce the weight of the VRFB stack as well as the cost of the battery manufacturing. On the other hand, the acid and heat pretreatment of the membrane improves the energy and voltage efficiencies of VRFB from 66.9% and 76.8% to 73% and 87%, respectively
Keywords
Main Subjects
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## E. Sum, M. Rychcik, and M. Skyllas-Kazacos, "Investigation of the V (V)/V (IV) system for use in the positive half-cell of a redox battery," Power Sources, vol. 16, no. 2, 1985.##
## E. Sum and M. Skyllas-Kazacos, "A study of the V (II)/V (III) redox couple for redox flow cell applications," Journal of Power sources, vol. 15, no. 2-3, pp. 179-190, 1985.##
## M. M. Loghavi, M. Zarei-Jelyani, Z. Niknam, M. Babaiee, and R. Eqra, "Antimony-decorated graphite felt electrode of vanadium redox flow battery in mixed-acid electrolyte: promoting electrocatalytic and gas-evolution inhibitory properties," Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, p. 116090, 2022.##
## M. Zarei-Jelyani, M. Babaiee, A. Ghasemi, and R. Eqra, "Investigation of hydroxylated carbon felt electrode in vanadium redox flow battery by using optimized supporting electrolyte," Journal of Renewable Energy and Environment, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 54-59, 2016.##
## M. Skyllas-Kazacos, M. Chakrabarti, S. Hajimolana, F. Mjalli, and M. Saleem, "Progress in flow battery research and development," Journal of the electrochemical society, vol. 158, no. 8, p. R55, 2011.##
## G. L. Soloveichik, "Metal-free energy storage," Nature, vol. 505, no. 7482, pp. 163-164, 2014.##
## M. H. Moghim, R. Eqra, M. Babaiee, M. Zarei-Jelyani, and M. M. Loghavi, "Role of reduced graphene oxide as nano-electrocatalyst in carbon felt electrode of vanadium redox flow battery," Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, vol. 789, pp. 67-75, 2017.##
## G. Kear, A. A. Shah, and F. C. Walsh, "Development of the all‐vanadium redox flow battery for energy storage: a review of technological, financial and policy aspects," International journal of energy research, vol. 36, no. 11, pp. 1105-1120, 2012.##
## C. Ding, H. Zhang, X. Li, T. Liu, and F. Xing, "Vanadium flow battery for energy storage: prospects and challenges," The journal of physical chemistry letters, vol. 4, no. 8, pp. 1281-1294, 2013.##
## X. Li, H. Zhang, Z. Mai, H. Zhang, and I. Vankelecom, "Ion exchange membranes for vanadium redox flow battery (VRB) applications," Energy & Environmental Science, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 1147-1160, 2011.##
## F. Rahman and M. Skyllas-Kazacos, "Vanadium redox battery: Positive half-cell electrolyte studies," Journal of Power Sources, vol. 189, no. 2, pp. 1212-1219, 2009.##
## W. Lu, X. Li, and H. Zhang, "The next generation vanadium flow batteries with high power density–a perspective," Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, vol. 20, no. 1, pp. 23-35, 2018.##
## S. Kim et al., "1 kW/1 kWh advanced vanadium redox flow battery utilizing mixed acid electrolytes," Journal of Power Sources, vol. 237, pp. 300-309, 2013.##
## D. Reed et al., "Performance of Nafion® N115, Nafion® NR-212, and Nafion® NR-211 in a 1 kW class all vanadium mixed acid redox flow battery," Journal of Power Sources, vol. 285, pp. 425-430, 2015.##
## B. Jiang, L. Wu, L. Yu, X. Qiu, and J. Xi, "A comparative study of Nafion series membranes for vanadium redox flow batteries," Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 510, pp. 18-26, 2016.##
## Z. Yuan, Y. Duan, H. Zhang, X. Li, H. Zhang, and I. Vankelecom, "Advanced porous membranes with ultra-high selectivity and stability for vanadium flow batteries," Energy & environmental science, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 441-447, 2016.##
## A. Parasuraman, T. M. Lim, C. Menictas, and M. Skyllas-Kazacos, "Review of material research and development for vanadium redox flow battery applications," Electrochimica Acta, vol. 101, pp. 27-40, 2013.##
## M. Ulaganathan, V. Aravindan, Q. Yan, S. Madhavi, M. Skyllas‐Kazacos, and T. M. Lim, "Recent advancements in all‐vanadium redox flow batteries," Advanced Materials Interfaces, vol. 3, no. 1, p. 1500309, 2016.##
## D. Chen, M. A. Hickner, E. Agar, and E. C. Kumbur, "Optimized anion exchange membranes for vanadium redox flow batteries," ACS applied materials interfaces, vol. 5, no. 15, pp. 7559-7566, 2013.##
## D. Reed et al., "Performance of a low cost interdigitated flow design on a 1 kW class all vanadium mixed acid redox flow battery," Journal of Power Sources, vol. 306, pp. 24-31, 2016.##
## Z. Yuan, X. Zhu, M. Li, W. Lu, X. Li, and H. Zhang, "A highly ion‐selective zeolite flake layer on porous membranes for flow battery applications," Angewandte Chemie, vol. 128, no. 9, pp. 3110-3114, 2016.##
## J. Xi, Z. Wu, X. Teng, Y. Zhao, L. Chen, and X. Qiu, "Self-assembled polyelectrolyte multilayer modified Nafion membrane with suppressed vanadium ion crossover for vanadium redox flow batteries," Journal of Materials Chemistry, vol. 18, no. 11, pp. 1232-1238, 2008.##
## L. Liu, W. Chen, and Y. Li, "An overview of the proton conductivity of nafion membranes through a statistical analysis," Journal of membrane science, vol. 504, pp. 1-9, 2016.##
## R. Kuwertz, C. Kirstein, T. Turek, and U. Kunz, "Influence of acid pretreatment on ionic conductivity of Nafion® membranes," Journal of membrane science, vol. 500, pp. 225-235, 2016.##
## A. Hassan, "Thermochemical treatment and Spectro-electrochemical characterization of electrodes used in pilot scale vanadium redox flow battery," Université Paul Sabatier-Toulouse III, 2020.##
## M. M. Ikhsan et al., "Polybenzimidazole membranes for vanadium redox flow batteries: Effect of sulfuric acid doping conditions," Chemical Engineering Journal, vol. 435, p. 134902, 2022.##
## C. Tempelman, J. Jacobs, R. Balzer, and V. Degirmenci, "Membranes for all vanadium redox flow batteries," Journal of Energy Storage, vol. 32, p. 101754, 2020.##
## K. Shirasaki and T. Yamamura, "Direct observation of vanadium ion permeation behavior through Nafion 117 using 48V radiotracer for all-vanadium redox flow battery," Journal of Membrane Science, vol. 592, p. 117367, 2019.##
## C. Sun, J. Chen, H. Zhang, X. Han, and Q. Luo, "Investigations on transfer of water and vanadium ions across Nafion membrane in an operating vanadium redox flow battery," Journal of Power Sources, vol. 195, no. 3, pp. 890-897, 2010.##
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