• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
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• 2015.11a
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• pp.338-338
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• 2015

VRFB(Vanadium Redox Flow Battery)는 바나듐계 이온을 전해질로 사용하는 레독스 흐름 전지로, 전해질의 양이 전지의 용량을 결정하기 때문에 주로 대용량의 전력이 필요한 플랜트 등에서 주로 사용하는 전지이다. 이 VRFB내에는 Current collector의 부식 방지용으로 두꺼운 Graphite판을 BP(Bipolar plate)로 사용한다. 플랜트에서는 대용량 전지를 필요로 하여 Single stack으로는 사용되기 어렵고, Multi stack으로 주로 사용한다. Multi stack의 경우, 수 백장의 BP가 들어가 전지의 부피가 매우 커지게 되고, 이에 본 연구에서는 BP의 두꺼운 Graphite를 얇은 $TiO_2$ 기판으로 교체하여 성능을 비교하는 연구를 진행하였다. Ti 금속기판을 양극산화법으로 $TiO_2$ 나노튜브 구조를 만든 후, $TiO_2$의 전도도 향상을 목적으로 $IrO_2$를 코팅하였다. 결과적으로 기존의 Graphite에 비해 전기화학적 특성이 향상되었음을 확인하였으며, Cell test를 통해 VRFB의 성능을 평가하였다.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2016

Vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) using the electrolytes containing various vanadium ions in sulfuric acid as supporting solution are one of the energy storage devices in alternatively charging and discharging operation modes. The positive electrolyte contains $V^{5+}/V^{4+}$ and the negative electrolyte $V^{2+}/V^{3+}$ depending on the operation mode. To prevent the mixing of two solutions, proton exchange membranes are mainly used in VRFBs. Nafion 117 could be the most promising candidate due to the strong oxidative property of $V^{5+}$ ion, but causes high crossover of electroactive species to result in a decrease in coulombic efficiency. In this study, the composite membranes using Nafion ionomer and porous polyethylene substrate were prepared to keep good chemical stability and to decrease the cost of membranes, and were compared to the properties and performance of the commercially available electrolyte membrane, Nafion 117. As a result, the water uptake and ionic conductivity of the composite membranes increased as the thickness of the composite membranes increased, but those of Nafion 117 slightly decreased. The permeability of vanadium ions for the composite membranes significantly decreased compared to that for Nafion 117. In a single cell test for the composite membranes, the voltage efficiency decreased and the coulombic efficiency increased, finally resulting in the similar energy efficiency. In conclusion, the less cost of the composite membranes by decreasing 6.4 wt.% of the amount of perfluorinated sulfonic acid polymer due to the introduction of porous substrate and lower vanadium ion permeability to decrease self-discharge were achieved than Nafion 117.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.89-95
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• 2015

Carbon felts manufactured by (Co)CNF were subjected to heat treatment under different temperatures to use for the electrode of a redox-flow battery. BET and weight loss were tested to investigate the physical properties of the carbon felt according to the heat treatment conditions. SEM and XPS were also analyzed to characterize their surface area. In addition, electrical resistance, CV (cyclic voltammetry) and RFB charge on the electrode properties were examined in accordance with the heat treatment conditions with the discharge performance. The changes of physical properties on the carbon felt surface was confirmed via SEM and BET analysis, The most addition of oxygen functional groups on the carbon felt surface was obtained when one hour heat treatment at $550^{\circ}C$ and it was confirmed by XPS analysis. After resulting the CV tests, the active area of the electrode was the largest at $550^{\circ}C$ heat treatment. The heat treatment experiment of vanadium redox flow battery using the carbon felts were tested at $400^{\circ}C$, $500^{\circ}C$ and $550^{\circ}C$. As a result, the charge-discharge energy efficiency of the heat treatment electrode was 72.9% and 79.8%, at $400^{\circ}C$ and $500^{\circ}C$, respectively. The efficiency of the heat treatment electrode at $550^{\circ}C$ was the best as 79.8% at $550^{\circ}C$.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.150-156
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• 2014

In this study, we implemented a research for improving performance of redox flow battery (RFB) via enhancing reaction rate of vanadium reaction ($[VO]^{2+}/[VO_2]^+$) that was a rate determining step. For doing that, porous catalyst, CMK3 was employed and its perfoamance was compared with that of Vulcan(XC-72) and commercial Pt/C (Johnson-Matthey Pt 20wt.%). Cyclic voltammetry (CV) was used for inspecting reactivity, while its structural feature was measured by TEM and BET&BJH. Also, Charge-discharge trend was evaluated by single cell tests. As result, CMK3 showed 6 times better catalytic activity and twice better reversibility than Vulcan(XC-72), while it showed larger surface area than Vulcan XR due to its porous structure. Furthermore, CMK3 indicated 85% of reactivity and reversibility of commercial Pt/C despite its Pt-less situation. In single cell tests, when RFB adopted CMK3 as catalyst for positive electrode, its charge-discharge curve result was better than that adopted commercial Pt/C.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.82-90
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• 2015

This paper proposes an efficient bi-directional DC/DC converter topology using multi-phase interleaved method for power storage system. The proposed converter topology is used for a power storage system using a vanadium redox flow battery(VRFB) and is configured to enable bidirectional power flow for charging and discharging of VRFB. Proposed DC/DC converter of the 4 leg method is reduced to 1/4 times the rating of the reactor and the power semiconductor device so can be reduce the system size. Also, proposed topology is obtained the effect of four times the switching frequency as compared to the conventional converter in each leg with a 90 degree phase shift 4 leg method. This can suppress the reduction of the life of the secondary battery because it is possible to reduce the current ripple in accordance with the charging and discharging of VRFB and may increase the efficiency of the entire system. In this paper, it proposed bidirectional high-efficiency DC/DC converter topology Using multi-phase interleaved method and proved the validity through simulations and experiments.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.57 no.1
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• pp.17-21
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• 2019

The redox flow battery (RFB) is a large-capacity energy storage equipment, and the vanadium redox flow cell is a typical RFB, but VRFB is expensive. Iron-chrome RFBs are economical because they use low-cost active materials, but their low performance is an urgent problem. One of the reasons for the low performance is the crossover of the active materials. In this study, the sulfonated Poly (ether ether ketone) (sPEEK) membrane, which is a hydrocarbon membrane, was used instead of the fluorine membrane to reduce the crossover of the active materials. The chromium ion permeability of the sPEEK membrane was $1.8{\times}10^{-6}cm^2/min$, which was about 1/33 of that of the Nafion membrane. Thus, it was shown that the use of the sPEEK membrane instead of the fluorine membrane could solve the high active material crossover problem. The activation energy of iron diffusion through the sPEEK membrane was 24.9 kJ/mol, which was about 66% of Nafion membrane. And that the e-PTFE support in the polymer membrane reduces the active material crossover through Iron-Chrome Redox Flow Battery (ICRFB).

• Clean Technology
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.308-313
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• 2017

In this study, we investigated the electrocatalytic effects of the N and O co-doping of Graphite Felt (GF) electrode for the vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) at the cathode and the anode reaction, respectively. The electrodes were prepared by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) with $NH_3-O_2$ at 773 K, and its effects were compared with an electrode prepared by an O doping treatment. The surface morphology and chemical composition of the electrodes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The electrocatalytic properties of these electrodes were characterized in a VRFB single cell comparing the efficiencies and performance of the electrodes at the cathode, anode, and single cell level. The results exhibited about 2% higher voltage and energy efficiencies on the N-O-GF than the O-GF electrode. It was found that the N and O co-doping was particularly effective in the enhancement of the reduction-oxidation reaction at the anode.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.351-362
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• 2021

All-vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) is one of the promising high-capacity energy storage technologies. The ion-exchange membrane (IEM) is a key component influencing the charge-discharge performance and durability of VRFB. In this study, a pore-filled anion-exchange membrane (PFAEM) was fabricated by filling the pores of porous polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) support with excellent physical and chemical stability to compensate for the shortcomings of the existing hydrocarbon-based IEMs. The use of a thin porous PTFE support significantly lowered the electrical resistance, and the use of the PTFE support and the introduction of a fluorine moiety into the filling ionomer significantly improved the oxidation stability of the membrane. As a result of the evaluation of the charge-discharge performance, the higher the current efficiency was seen by increasing the fluorine content in the PFAEM, and the superior voltage and energy efficiencies were shown owing to the lower electrical resistance compared to the commercial membrane. In addition, it was confirmed that the use of a hydrophobic PTFE support is more preferable in terms of oxidation stability and charge-discharge performance.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.33 no.11
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• pp.3589-3592
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• 2012

Carbon composite bipolar plates with various carbon black contents were prepared by a compression molding method. The electrical conductivity and electrochemical stability of the bipolar plates have been evaluated. It is found that the electrical conductivity increases with increasing carbon black contents up to 15 wt %. When the carbon black contents are greater than 15 wt %, the electrical conductivity decreases because of a poor compatibility between epoxy resin and carbon black, and a weakening of compaction in the carbon composite bipolar plate. Based on the results, it could be concluded that there are optimum carbon black contents when preparing the carbon composite bipolar plate. Corrosion tests show that the carbon composite bipolar plate with 15 wt % carbon black exhibits better electrochemical stability than a graphite bipolar plate under a highly acidic condition. When the optimized carbon composite bipolar plate is applied to vanadium redox flow cells, the performance of flow cells with the carbon composite bipolar plate is comparable to that of flow cells with the graphite bipolar plate.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Energy Engineering kosee Conference
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• 2002.11a
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• pp.123-126
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• 2002

레독스-흐름 2차 전지는 레독스 쌍이 녹아있는 수용액을 탱크에 저장한 다음 펌프로 유통형 전해 셀에 공급해 충방전하는 2차 전지의 한 종류이며, 종래의 2차 전지와는 다른 재생형 연료전지 중의 하나이다[1]. 이러한 전지의 원리는 19세기말부터 알려져 있었지만, 중량과 용적이 컸기 때문에 소형화, 경량화가 중시되는 2차 전지로서는 부적당하였고, 수용액을 사용하기 때문에 기전력이 낮다는 결점이 있었다.(중략)