A comparison of materials and treatment of materials for vanadium redox flow battery

Because of their unique properties redox flow batteries are promising candidates to meet the increasing demand for energy storage solutions resulting from the increasing use of fluctuating renewable energy sources. Because of the relatively high cost of the energy converter, in particular the electrode materials and the ion conducting membrane, research to improve energy efficiency and power density has been carried out. To compensate NAFION®, the anion-conducting membrane FAP was investigated, which can achieve the same performance as NAFION® but is porous. The performance of graphite felts shows a clear dependence on the type of thermal hydrophilisation. Cells using natural graphite as an electrode material have a lower internal resistance and higher reactivity than those with graphite composite electrodes.