• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.292-299
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• 2014

In this study, nitrogen doped carbon felt (CFt) is prepared using thermal oxidation and liquid phase ammonia treatment to improve the efficiency for vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB). The electrochemical properties of prepared CFt electrodes are investigated using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and charge/discharge test. The XPS result shows that the increase of liquid phase ammonia treatment temperature leads to the increased nitrogen functional group on the CFt surface. Redox reaction characteristics using CV reveal that the liquid phase ammonia treated CFt electrodes are more reversible than the thermally oxidized CFt. When CFt is treated by the liquid phase ammonia at $300^{\circ}C$, VRFB cell energy efficiency, voltage efficiency, and current efficiency are increased about 6.93%, 1.0%, and 4.5%, respectively, compared to those of the thermally oxidized CFt. These results are because nitrogen functional groups on CFt help to improve the electrochemical properties of redox reaction between electrode and electrolyte interface.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.89-95
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• 2015

Carbon felts manufactured by (Co)CNF were subjected to heat treatment under different temperatures to use for the electrode of a redox-flow battery. BET and weight loss were tested to investigate the physical properties of the carbon felt according to the heat treatment conditions. SEM and XPS were also analyzed to characterize their surface area. In addition, electrical resistance, CV (cyclic voltammetry) and RFB charge on the electrode properties were examined in accordance with the heat treatment conditions with the discharge performance. The changes of physical properties on the carbon felt surface was confirmed via SEM and BET analysis, The most addition of oxygen functional groups on the carbon felt surface was obtained when one hour heat treatment at $550^{\circ}C$ and it was confirmed by XPS analysis. After resulting the CV tests, the active area of the electrode was the largest at $550^{\circ}C$ heat treatment. The heat treatment experiment of vanadium redox flow battery using the carbon felts were tested at $400^{\circ}C$, $500^{\circ}C$ and $550^{\circ}C$. As a result, the charge-discharge energy efficiency of the heat treatment electrode was 72.9% and 79.8%, at $400^{\circ}C$ and $500^{\circ}C$, respectively. The efficiency of the heat treatment electrode at $550^{\circ}C$ was the best as 79.8% at $550^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.263-270
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• 2009

Carbon felt surface was modified by heat or acid treatment in order to use for the electrode of a redox-flow battery. Polymers on the surface of carbon felt was removed and oxygen-containing functional group was attached after the thermal treatment of carbon felt. Thermal treatment was better for the stability of the carbon structure than the acid treatment. Oxygen-containing functional group on the thermally treated carbon felt at 500$^{\circ}C$ was confirmed by XPS and elementary analysis. BET surface area was increased from nearly zero to 96 $m^2/g$. Thermally treated carbon felt at 500$^{\circ}C$ showed lower activation polarization than the thermally treated carbon felt at 400$^{\circ}C$ and the acid-treated carbon felt in the cyclicvoltammetry and polarization experiments. The thermally treated carbon felts at 400$^{\circ}C$ and 500$^{\circ}C$ and the acid-treated carbon felt was applied for the electrode to prepare vanadium redox flow battery. Voltage efficiencies of charge/discharge were 86.6%, 89.6%, and 96.9% for the thermally treated carbon felts at 400$^{\circ}C$ and 500$^{\circ}C$ and the acid-treated carbon felt, respectively.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.408-412
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• 2019

In this study, nitrogen doped carbon felt was prepared by pyrolysis of urea at high temperature and applied as an electrode for vanadium redox flow cell. Urea is easier to handle than ammonia and forms $NH_2$ radicals at higher temperatures, creating a nitrogen functional group on the carbon surface and acting as an active site in the vanadium redox reaction. Therefore, the discharge capacity of activated carbon felt electrodes using urea was 14.9 Ah/L at a current density of $150mA/cm^2$, which is 23% and 187% higher than OGF and GF, respectively. These results show the possibility that activated carbon felt electrode using urea can be used as electrode material for redox flow battery.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.87-96
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• 2010

The electrode material is one of the factors affecting the power production of microbial fuel cell. In this study, effects of carbon electrode material, thickness and configuration on the power density, biofilm formation and microbial community diversity of microbial fuel cell were investigated. To optimize the anode-cathode electrode assembly, seven lab-scale reactors which had various carbon electrode constructions were operated in continuous mode. Under the steady state condition, the electrode combination of graphite felt (6 mm) with hole showed the highest cell voltage of 238 mV and the coulombic efficiency of 37%. As a result of SEM analysis, the bacteria growing on surface of knitted type of carbon cloth and graphite felt electrode ncreased significantly. The change of dominant species between seeding sludge and biofilm on the surface of anode electrode, microbial analysis with PCR-DGGE showed that the dominant species of seeding sludge are quite different from those of biofilm on the surface of each anode electrode. Especially Geobacter sp., a well known electrochemical bacteria, was found as the dominant species of the electrode combination with graphite felt.

• Composites Research
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.422-428
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• 2023

The electrical contact resistance between the bipolar plate (BP) and the carbon felt electrode (CFE), which are in contact by the stack clamping pressure, has a great impact on the stack efficiency because of the relatively low clamping pressure of the vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) stack. In this study, a polyethylene (PE) composite-CFE hybrid bipolar plate structure is developed through a local heat welding process to reduce such contact resistance and improve cell performance. The PE matrix of the carbon fiber composite BP is locally melted to create a direct contact structure between the carbon fibers of CFE and the carbon fibers of BP, thereby reducing the electrical contact resistance. Area specific resistance (ASR) and gas permeability are measured to evaluate the performance of the PE composite-CFE hybrid bipolar plate. In addition, an acid aging test is performed to measure stack reliability. Finally, a VFRB unit cell charge/discharge test is performed to compare and analyze the performance of the developed PE composite-CFE hybrid BP and the conventional BP.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.1-5
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• 2018

In this study, boron - doped carbon was prepared by reducing carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) at high temperature by using sodium borohydride ($NaBH_4$). The boron - doped carbon was coated on carbon felt and applied as an electrode for a vanadium redox battery cell. As a result of electrochemical performance evaluation, reversibility of carbon felt coated with boron doped carbon compared to pure carbon felt was improved by about 20% and charge transfer resistance was reduced by 60%. In the charge / discharge results, energy density and energy efficiency were improved by 21% and 12.4%, respectively. These results show that carbon produced by reduction of $CO_2$ can be used as electrode material for redox flow battery.

• Composites Research
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.190-196
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• 2024

The bipolar plate is a crucial element of the vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) as it serves as both the electrical conduit and the structural support for the cell within the VRFB stack. Although, the graphite material is primarily used for the bipolar plate due to its excellent electrical conductivity, a significant limitation of performance of the VRFB is present due to high interfacial contact resistance (ICR) arises between the electrode and bipolar plate in the cell stack. This study aims to develop an integrated electrode-bipolar plate assembly that will address the limitations of the ICR. The integrated assembly was constructed using a single carbon felt with thermoplastic and thermoset polymers utilizing hot press method. Experimental results verify that the bipolar plate assembly exhibits reduced area specific resistance (ASR) due to the continuous electrical path. Additionally, from the charge/discharge cell test results, the integrated assembly shows improved cell performance. Therefore, the developed integrated electrode-bipolar plate assembly can serve as a substitute for the conventional bipolar plate and electrode assembly.

• Composites Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.148-154
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• 2021

Carbon/epoxy composite bipolar plate (BP) is a BP that is likely to replace existing graphite bipolar plate of vanadium redox flow cell (VRFB) due to its high mechanical properties and productivity. Multi-functional carbon/epoxy composite BP requires graphite coating or additional surface treatment to reduce interfacial contact resistance (ICR). However, the expanded graphite coating has the disadvantage of having low durability under VRFB operating conditions, and the surface treatments incur additional costs. In this work, an excessive resin absorption method is developed, which uniformly removes the resin rich area on the surface of the BP to expose carbon fibers by applying polyester fabric. This method not only reduces ICR by exposing carbon fibers to BP surfaces, but also forms a unique ditch pattern that can effectively hold carbon felt electrodes in place. The acidic environmental durability, mechanical properties, and gas permeability of the developed carbon/epoxy composite BP are experimentally verified.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.54 no.4
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• pp.164-170
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• 2021

Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB) have emerged as large-scale energy storage systems (ESS) due to their advantages such as low cross-contamination, long life, and flexible design. However, Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) in the negative half-cell causes a harmful influence on the performance of the VRFB by consuming current. Moreover, HER hinders V²⁺/V³⁺ redox reaction between electrode and electrolyte by forming a bubble. To address the HER problem, carbon nanotube/graphite felt electrode (CNT/GF) with oxygen functional groups was synthesized through the hydrothermal method in the H₂SO₄ + HNO₃ (3:1) mixed acid solution. These oxygen functional groups on the CNT/GF succeed in suppressing the HER and improving charge transfer for V²⁺/V³⁺ redox reaction. As a result, the oxygen functional group applied electrode exhibited a low overpotential of 0.395 V for V²⁺/V³⁺ redox reaction. Hence, this work could offer a new strategy to design and synthesize effective electrodes for HER suppression and improving the energy density of VRFB.