TY - JOUR
T1 - Nanoscopic and Macro-Porous Carbon Nano-foam Electrodes with Improved Mass Transport for Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries
AU - Mustafa, Ibrahim
AU - Susantyoko, Rahmat
AU - Wu, Chieh Han
AU - Ahmed, Fatima
AU - Hashaikeh, Raed
AU - Almarzooqi, Faisal
AU - Almheiri, Saif
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - Although free-standing sheets of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) can provide interesting electrochemical and physical properties as electrodes for redox flow batteries, the full potential of this class of materials has not been accessible as of yet. The conventional fabrication methods produce sheets with micro-porous and meso-porous structures, which significantly resist mass transport of the electrolyte during high-current flow-cell operation. Herein, we developed a method to fabricate high performance macro-porous carbon nano-foam free standing sheets (Puffy Fibers, PF), by implementing a freeze-drying step into our low cost and scalable surface-engineered tape-casting (SETC) fabrication method, and we show the improvement in the performance attained as compared with a MWCNT sheet lacking any macro pores (Tape-cast, TC). We attribute the higher performance attained by our in-lab fabricated PF papers to the presence of macro pores which provided channels that acted as pathways for electrolytic transport within the bulk of the electrode. Moreover, we propose an electrolytic transport mechanism to relate ion diffusivity to different pore sizes to explain the different modes of charge transfer in the negative and the positive electrolytes. Overall, the PF papers had a high wettability, high porosity, and a large surface area, resulting in improved electrochemical and flow-cell performances.
AB - Although free-standing sheets of multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) can provide interesting electrochemical and physical properties as electrodes for redox flow batteries, the full potential of this class of materials has not been accessible as of yet. The conventional fabrication methods produce sheets with micro-porous and meso-porous structures, which significantly resist mass transport of the electrolyte during high-current flow-cell operation. Herein, we developed a method to fabricate high performance macro-porous carbon nano-foam free standing sheets (Puffy Fibers, PF), by implementing a freeze-drying step into our low cost and scalable surface-engineered tape-casting (SETC) fabrication method, and we show the improvement in the performance attained as compared with a MWCNT sheet lacking any macro pores (Tape-cast, TC). We attribute the higher performance attained by our in-lab fabricated PF papers to the presence of macro pores which provided channels that acted as pathways for electrolytic transport within the bulk of the electrode. Moreover, we propose an electrolytic transport mechanism to relate ion diffusivity to different pore sizes to explain the different modes of charge transfer in the negative and the positive electrolytes. Overall, the PF papers had a high wettability, high porosity, and a large surface area, resulting in improved electrochemical and flow-cell performances.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85075741951&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85075741951&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41598-019-53491-w
DO - 10.1038/s41598-019-53491-w
M3 - Article
C2 - 31776352
AN - SCOPUS:85075741951
SN - 2045-2322
VL - 9
JO - Scientific reports
JF - Scientific reports
IS - 1
M1 - 17655
ER -