1. Nanofluidic Electrolyte for Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries
- Author
-
Aberoumand, Sadegh
- Subjects
- vanadium redox flow battery, nanofluidic electrolyte, battery efficiencies
- Abstract
The ever-increasing demand for renewable energy resources has encouraged the development of electrochemical energy storage technologies that are able to store and deliver electrical energy when and where it is required. Redox flow batteries (RFBs) are a promising response to this demand, as they can help to not only reduce the unpredictability of the sources such as solar and wind energy, but also provide backup power and reduce the reliance on fossil fuels towards 2050 net zero emission targets. The Vanadium Redox Flow Battery (VFRB) as a well-stablished flow battery is one of the main potential candidates for large-scale energy storage systems due to its advantages of higher round-trip efficiency of typically between 75%-85%, long cycle life - suggested to be over 20 years with appropriate maintenance, lower maintenance due to the stability of the all-vanadium electrolyte and not having much crossover contamination. These pros make the VRFB competitive in flow battery technologies. However, the world-wide implementation of VRFBs is restricted due to the problems of low energy and power density which are mainly associated with the electrolyte and electrode. Although researchers have been focusing on improving the electrochemical properties and the battery’s performance using different modifications to the electrolyte and electrode, one of the issues that still exists in some of the research-scale VRFBs is the detachment of the catalysts and precipitation which causes capacity decay over cycling. In this thesis, a rarely studied approach of utilizing nanofluidic electrolyte was extensively investigated and applied into the VRFB to analyse the effectiveness of the concept with novel 2D materials. [...]
- Published
- 2023