• Membrane Journal
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.155-163
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• 2019

The anion exchange membrane using the blending polymer of poly(ether sulfone) and poly(phenylene sulfide sulfone) was prepared. It was confirmed by EDXS and FT-IR analysis that the prepared anion exchange membrane had the -N- as an anion exchange group. The ionic conductivity in 1 mol/L $H_2SO_4$ aqueous solution was measured. The ionic conductivity of the prepared anion exchange membrane was 0.015~0.083 S/cm, and had a high value compared with AFN and APS as a commercial anion exchange membrane. Permeabilities of the vanadium ions through the prepared anion exchange membrane were tested to evaluate the possibility as a separator in vanadium redox flow battery. Vanadium ion permeation rate in the prepared anion exchange membrane had a low value compared with Nafion 117 as a commercial cation exchange and AFN as a commercial anion exchange membrane.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.615-621
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• 2013

Membrane characterization methods for aqueous redox flow batteries aqueous RFBs were modified for non-aqueous RFBs. The modified characterization methods, such as ion exchange capacity, transport number, permeability and single cell test, were carried out to evaluate commercial membranes in non-aqueous electrolyte. It was found that columbic efficiency and energy efficiency in a single cell test were dependent on the ion selectivity of commercial anion exchange membranes. Neosepta AHA anion exchange membrane showed the anion transport number of 0.81, which is a relatively low ion selectivity in non-aqueous electrolyte, however, exhibited 92% of coulombic efficiency and 86% of energy efficiency in a single cell test. It was also found that a porous membrane without ion selectivity is suitable for a non-aqueous redox flow battery at a high current density.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2020

In this study, we have established the optimum design condition of pore-filled anion-exchange membrane for all-vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB). From the experimental results, it was proven that the membrane design factors that have the greatest influence on the charge-discharge performance of VRFB are the ion exchange capacity, the porosity of substrate film, and the crosslinking degree. That is, the ohmic loss and the crossover of active materials in VRFB were shown to be determined by the above factors. In addition, two methods, i.e. reducing the ion exchange capacity at low crosslinking degree and increasing the crosslinking degree at high ion exchange capacity, were investigated in the preparation of pore-filled anion-exchange membranes. As a result, it was found that optimizing the crosslinking degree at sufficiently high ion exchange capacity is more desirable to achieving high VRFB charge-discharge performances.

• 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.

• 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.19 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2016

Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) using the electrolytes containing various vanadium ions in sulfuric acid as supporting solution are one of the energy storage devices in alternatively charging and discharging operation modes. The positive electrolyte contains $V^{5+}/V^{4+}$ and the negative electrolyte $V^{2+}/V^{3+}$ depending on the operation mode. To prevent the mixing of two solutions, proton exchange membranes are mainly used in VRFBs. Nafion 117 could be the most promising candidate due to the strong oxidative property of $V^{5+}$ ion, but causes high crossover of electroactive species to result in a decrease in coulombic efficiency. In this study, the composite membranes using Nafion ionomer and porous polyethylene substrate were prepared to keep good chemical stability and to decrease the cost of membranes, and were compared to the properties and performance of the commercially available electrolyte membrane, Nafion 117. As a result, the water uptake and ionic conductivity of the composite membranes increased as the thickness of the composite membranes increased, but those of Nafion 117 slightly decreased. The permeability of vanadium ions for the composite membranes significantly decreased compared to that for Nafion 117. In a single cell test for the composite membranes, the voltage efficiency decreased and the coulombic efficiency increased, finally resulting in the similar energy efficiency. In conclusion, the less cost of the composite membranes by decreasing 6.4 wt.% of the amount of perfluorinated sulfonic acid polymer due to the introduction of porous substrate and lower vanadium ion permeability to decrease self-discharge were achieved than Nafion 117.

• 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.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.175.2-175.2
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• 2011

바나듐 3, 4, 5가 이온은 공기 중에서 안정하지만, 바나듐 2가 이온은 쉽게 산화된다. 그러므로 바나듐 2가 이온이 담겨져 있는 음극 탱크가 공기와 접촉하지 않게 하는 것이 중요하다. 충전 중 음극 탱크에 공기가 침투되면, 바나듐 2가 이온은 3가 이온으로 산화되기 때문에 음극과 양극의 전해질에 불균형을 초래한다. 이러한 불균형은 바나듐 레독스 흐름전지 용량저하의 원인이 된다. 본 연구에서는 공기 중 2가 이온 산화에 의한 전해질의 불균형 현상을 쉽게 보여주기 위해, 공기노출과 차단조건에서 충방전 중에 발생한 음극과 양극의 바나듐 이온 상태변화량을 UV-Visible spectrophotometer를 이용해 정량적으로 분석하였다. 분석 결과, 공기노출 조건에서 음극의 충전 시, 충방전 cycle이 진행 될수록 바나듐 2가 이온의 양이 현격히 줄어들었지만, 공기차단 조건에서는 2가 이온의 양이 공기노출 조건보다 훨씬 더 적게 줄어들었다. 즉, 공기차단 조건에서는 바나듐 2가 이온이 3가로 산화되지 않아서 음극의 충전 후 바나듐 3가에서 2가로 전환되는 양이 공기노출 조건보다 더 많은 것을 확인할 수 있었다. 이러한 영향으로 인해, 충방전 10th cycle을 진행해 본 결과, 공기차단 조건에서는 충방전 용량감소가 거의 없었지만 공기노출 조건에서는 현격한 충방전 용량 감소를 보였다.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.150-156
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• 2014

In this study, we implemented a research for improving performance of redox flow battery (RFB) via enhancing reaction rate of vanadium reaction ($[VO]^{2+}/[VO_2]^+$) that was a rate determining step. For doing that, porous catalyst, CMK3 was employed and its perfoamance was compared with that of Vulcan(XC-72) and commercial Pt/C (Johnson-Matthey Pt 20wt.%). Cyclic voltammetry (CV) was used for inspecting reactivity, while its structural feature was measured by TEM and BET&BJH. Also, Charge-discharge trend was evaluated by single cell tests. As result, CMK3 showed 6 times better catalytic activity and twice better reversibility than Vulcan(XC-72), while it showed larger surface area than Vulcan XR due to its porous structure. Furthermore, CMK3 indicated 85% of reactivity and reversibility of commercial Pt/C despite its Pt-less situation. In single cell tests, when RFB adopted CMK3 as catalyst for positive electrode, its charge-discharge curve result was better than that adopted commercial Pt/C.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.170-178
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• 2015

In this study, we carry out a study on how to improve performance of vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) through promoting reaction rate of rate determining vanadium reaction ($[VO]^{2+}/[VO_2]^+$). In order to do that, three different carbons like Vulcan (XC-72), CMK3 and MSU-F-C are adopted as the catalysts, while their catalytic activity and reaction reversibility are evaluated using half-cell tests. Their topological images are also measured by TEM. For estimation of the VRFB performance, multiple charge-discharge curves of VRFBs including the catalysts are measured by single cell tests. As a result of that, MSU-F-C shows relatively excellent catalytic activity and reaction reversibility as well as large surface area compared to those of Vulcan (XC-72) and CMK3. Also, in terms of the performance of VRFBs including the catalysts, VRFB including MSU-F-C indicates (i) low charging/discharging overpotentials and low internal resistance, (ii) high charge/discharge capacities and (iii) high energy efficiency. These VRFB performance data are well agreed with results on catalytic activity and reaction reversibility. The reason that MSU-F-C induces superior VRFB performances is attributed to (i) its large surface area and (ii) its hydrophilic surface functional groups that mainly consist of hydroxyl bonds that are supposed to play active surface site role for facilitaing $[VO]^{2+}/[VO_2]^+$ redox reaction. Based on the above results, it is found that adoption of MSU-F-C as catalyst for VRFB results in improvement in VRFB performance by promoting the languid $[VO]^{2+}/[VO_2]^+$ redox reaction.