Issue 16, 2018

The effect of adding Bi3+ on the performance of a newly developed iron–copper redox flow battery

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a new, abundant, cost-effective, non-toxic, and environmentally benign iron–copper redox flow battery (Fe/Cu RFB), which employs Fe2+/Fe3+ and Cu+/Cu0 as the positive and negative electrolytes, respectively. The effect of graphite felt (GF) electrode modification and addition of Bi3+ into the electrolytes on the performance of the Fe/Cu RFB were investigated. It was found that the cell containing Bi3+ in the electrolytes revealed higher coulombic efficiency (89.18%) and energy efficiency (35.24%) than the cell without Bi3+ (CE = 84.10% and EE = 34.43%) at 20 mA cm−2. This is because after adding Bi3+, Cu metal precipitation was not observed on the electrode surface, which indicates that the deposition process was potentially reversible on the electrode material, thus leading to enhanced performance of the battery. Furthermore, the efficiencies of the battery are stable over 10 cycles, which demonstrates that Fe/Cu RFB exhibits good stability on the microwave heat treated GF plus one layer microwave heat treated carbon paper (HT-GF + HT-CP) electrode after adding Bi3+ into the electrolytes.

Graphical abstract: The effect of adding Bi3+ on the performance of a newly developed iron–copper redox flow battery

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
30 nov 2017
Accepted
10 feb 2018
First published
23 feb 2018
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2018,8, 8537-8543

The effect of adding Bi3+ on the performance of a newly developed iron–copper redox flow battery

D. M. Kabtamu, G. Lin, Y. Chang, H. Chen, H. Huang, N. Hsu, Y. Chou, H. Wei and C. Wang, RSC Adv., 2018, 8, 8537 DOI: 10.1039/C7RA12926B

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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