article · ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
A composite electrode material combining graphite felt with defective cerium oxide nanowires has been developed to improve the performance of vanadium redox flow batteries. Synthesised using a single-step hydrothermal process followed by hydrogen annealing, the material is applied as a positive electrode to accelerate the VO2+/VO2+ redox reaction kinetics. In battery testing, the treated electrode achieved a voltage efficiency of 90.4% at a current density of 40 mA cm-2, outperforming both untreated graphite felt (81.1%) and unannealed cerium oxide nanowire electrodes (88.4%). The enhanced performance is attributed to the presence of abundant defects that act as active catalytic sites, thereby reducing electrochemical polarisation. Additionally, the one-dimensional architecture of the nanowires promotes rapid charge transfer and improves accessibility for active species.
Vanadium redox flow batteries offer promising solutions for stationary and grid-level energy storage, but their effectiveness is limited by slow electrochemical kinetics at the positive electrode. Enhancing electrode efficiency with low-cost catalytic coatings enables batteries to operate with reduced energy losses, directly improving the viability of large-scale renewable energy storage.
This development applies directly to vanadium redox flow battery manufacturing for stationary energy storage. The hydrothermally synthesised catalyst uses low-cost materials to improve electrode voltage efficiency. The technology is at an applied and tested laboratory stage, having demonstrated improved performance in experimental cells, though scaling up synthesis and testing long-term cell durability would be needed for commercial adoption.
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A novel, low-cost, and powerful cerium-oxide nanowire (CeO2NW) electrode decorated with graphite felt (GF) through a one-step hydrothermal method was proposed in this study. Subsequently, hydrogen annealing was conducted to create defective-hydrogen-annealed CeO2NWs decorated with GF (H–CeO2NWs–GF) for use in vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs). The electrochemical results show that the H–CeO2NWs–GF reveals excellent electrocatalytic effects toward the VO2+/VO2+ redox process in VRFBs at the positive electrode to facilitate the electrochemical kinetics of the VRFBs. The VRFBs using different electrode materials were compared with a VRFB using H–CeO2NWs–GF. The results revealed that the VRFB using H–CeO2NWs–GF exhibits the highest voltage efficiency of 90.4% at a current density of 40 mA cm–2, which is significantly higher than those using pristine GF (81.1%) and a CeO2NW electrode decorated with GF (88.4%). The significant improvement in the electrochemical performance of H–CeO2NWs–GF might be mostly ascribed to the defect-rich H–CeO2NWs on the GF surface, which acts as active sites and reduces the electrochemical polarization of the redox reaction. Moreover, the one-dimensional nature of H–CeO2NWs is favorable for the charge-transfer process and improves the accessibility, thus improving the electrode performance.
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DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.0c03861
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