Issue 5, 2016

A recast Nafion/graphene oxide composite membrane for advanced vanadium redox flow batteries

Abstract

A graphene oxide (GO) nanosheet incorporated recast Nafion membrane (rNafion/GO) is applied to a vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) as a promising ion-exchange membrane to reduce the vanadium permeation. Randomly embedded GO nanosheets in the composite membrane can serve as effective barriers to block the transport of vanadium ions, resulting in significant decrease of vanadium ion permeability. The rNafion/GO composite membrane exhibits a dense and homogeneous cross-section morphology as shown by SEM images. The hydrogen-bonding interaction between GO nanosheet filler and Nafion matrix is beneficial for the improvement of mechanical stability. Owing to the good balance of proton conductivity and vanadium ion permeability, the VRFB single cell performance of the rNafion/GO membrane shows higher coulombic efficiency (96% vs. 91%) and energy efficiency (85% vs. 80%) than the pure rNafion membrane at a current density of 80 mA cm−2. A long cycling test confirms that the rNafion/GO membrane has superior chemical and mechanical stability and can be repeatedly used in a VRFB without any damage, revealing the advancement for practical VRFB application.

Graphical abstract: A recast Nafion/graphene oxide composite membrane for advanced vanadium redox flow batteries

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
17 Nov 2015
Accepted
22 Des 2015
First published
23 Des 2015

RSC Adv., 2016,6, 3756-3763

A recast Nafion/graphene oxide composite membrane for advanced vanadium redox flow batteries

L. Yu, F. Lin, L. Xu and J. Xi, RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 3756 DOI: 10.1039/C5RA24317C

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements