Issue 4, 2024

Direct observation of carbon slurry flow behavior and its effect on electrochemical performance in a microfluidic electrochemical flow capacitor

Abstract

Carbon slurries have been used as “flowable electrodes” in various electrochemical systems, and the slurry flow characteristics play an important role in the system electrochemical performance. For example, in an electrochemical flow capacitor (EFC), activated carbon particles must pass electrical charge from a stationary electrode to surrounding particles via particle-electrode and particle–particle interactions to store energy in the electric double layer. So far, particle behaviors under a continuous flow condition have not been observed due to the slurry's opacity, and studies of the device's performance thus have been mainly on a bulk level. To understand the relation between the hydrodynamic behavior and the electrochemical performance of carbon slurries, we have constructed a microfluidic EFC (μ-EFC) using transparent materials. The μ-EFC allows for direct observation of particle interactions in flowing carbon slurries using high-speed camera recording, and concurrent measurements of the electrochemical performance via chronoamperometry. The results indicate an interesting dependence of the particle cluster interaction on the flowrate, and its effect on the slurry charging/discharging behavior. It is found that an optimal flowrate could exist for better electrochemical performance.

Graphical abstract: Direct observation of carbon slurry flow behavior and its effect on electrochemical performance in a microfluidic electrochemical flow capacitor

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
31 Aug. 2023
Accepted
23 Dec. 2023
First published
10 Janv. 2024
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Nanoscale, 2024,16, 1807-1816

Direct observation of carbon slurry flow behavior and its effect on electrochemical performance in a microfluidic electrochemical flow capacitor

B. Stacks, A. Esteban-Linares, M. Galazzo, H. Luo and D. Li, Nanoscale, 2024, 16, 1807 DOI: 10.1039/D3NR04391F

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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