• Membrane Journal
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.21-29
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• 2020

In this study, we have established the optimum design condition of pore-filled anion-exchange membrane for all-vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB). From the experimental results, it was proven that the membrane design factors that have the greatest influence on the charge-discharge performance of VRFB are the ion exchange capacity, the porosity of substrate film, and the crosslinking degree. That is, the ohmic loss and the crossover of active materials in VRFB were shown to be determined by the above factors. In addition, two methods, i.e. reducing the ion exchange capacity at low crosslinking degree and increasing the crosslinking degree at high ion exchange capacity, were investigated in the preparation of pore-filled anion-exchange membranes. As a result, it was found that optimizing the crosslinking degree at sufficiently high ion exchange capacity is more desirable to achieving high VRFB charge-discharge performances.

• Composites Research
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.148-154
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• 2021

Carbon/epoxy composite bipolar plate (BP) is a BP that is likely to replace existing graphite bipolar plate of vanadium redox flow cell (VRFB) due to its high mechanical properties and productivity. Multi-functional carbon/epoxy composite BP requires graphite coating or additional surface treatment to reduce interfacial contact resistance (ICR). However, the expanded graphite coating has the disadvantage of having low durability under VRFB operating conditions, and the surface treatments incur additional costs. In this work, an excessive resin absorption method is developed, which uniformly removes the resin rich area on the surface of the BP to expose carbon fibers by applying polyester fabric. This method not only reduces ICR by exposing carbon fibers to BP surfaces, but also forms a unique ditch pattern that can effectively hold carbon felt electrodes in place. The acidic environmental durability, mechanical properties, and gas permeability of the developed carbon/epoxy composite BP are experimentally verified.

• Composites Research
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.422-428
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• 2023

The electrical contact resistance between the bipolar plate (BP) and the carbon felt electrode (CFE), which are in contact by the stack clamping pressure, has a great impact on the stack efficiency because of the relatively low clamping pressure of the vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) stack. In this study, a polyethylene (PE) composite-CFE hybrid bipolar plate structure is developed through a local heat welding process to reduce such contact resistance and improve cell performance. The PE matrix of the carbon fiber composite BP is locally melted to create a direct contact structure between the carbon fibers of CFE and the carbon fibers of BP, thereby reducing the electrical contact resistance. Area specific resistance (ASR) and gas permeability are measured to evaluate the performance of the PE composite-CFE hybrid bipolar plate. In addition, an acid aging test is performed to measure stack reliability. Finally, a VFRB unit cell charge/discharge test is performed to compare and analyze the performance of the developed PE composite-CFE hybrid BP and the conventional BP.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.341-346
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• 2015

In order to understand the counter anionic effects in a non-aqueous vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB), we synthesized four types of electrolyte salts (1-ethyltriethamine tertafluoroborate, [E-TEDA]⁺[BF₄]⁻, 1-ethyltriethamine hexafluorophosphate, [E-TEDA]⁺[PF₆]⁻, 1-butyltriethylamine tertafluoroborate, [B-TEDA]⁺[BF₄]⁻, and 1-buthyltriethamine hexafluorophosphate [B-TEDA]⁺[PF₆]⁻) by counter anion exchange reaction after the SN₂ reaction. We confirmed the successful synthesis of the electrolyte salts [E-TEDA]⁺[Br]⁻ and [B-TEDA]⁺[Br]⁻ via ¹H-NMR spectroscopy and GC-mass analysis before the counter anion exchange reaction. The electric potential of the vanadium acetylacetonate, V(acac)₃, as an energy storage chemical was shown to be 2.2 V in the acetonitrile solvent with each of the [E-TEDA]⁺[BF₄]⁻, [E-TEDA]⁺[PF₆]⁻, [B-TEDA]⁺[BF₄]⁻, and [B-TEDA]⁺[PF₆]⁻ electrolyte salts. In a non-aqueous VRFB with a commercial Neosepta AFN membrane, the maximum voltages reached 1.0 V and 1.5 V under a fixed current value of 0.1 mA in acetonitrile with the [E-TEDA]⁺[BF₄]⁻ and [E-TEDA]⁺[PF₆]⁻ electrolyte salts, respectively. The maximum voltage was 0.8 V and 1.1 V under a fixed current value of 0.1 mA in acetonitrile with the [B-TEDA]⁺[BF₄]⁻ and [B-TEDA]⁺[PF₆]⁻ electrolyte salts, respectively. From these results, we concluded that in the non-aqueous VRFB more of the [PF₆]⁻ counter anion than the [BF₄]⁻ counter anion was transported onto the commercial Neosepta AFN anion exchange membrane.

• Proceedings of the KIPE Conference
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• 2013.11a
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• pp.115-116
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• 2013

Recently environmental problems such as greenhouse gas emissions has become a global problem. As a result, the current that can be easily used to Petroleum and coal reserves of fossil energy and environmental issues, coupled with the limitations of this finding for renewable energy to replace the movement is spreading around the world. Among them Energy Storage System with secondary battery technology has been increased interest in, Redox flow batteries, unlike the conventional theory, the life of the rechargeable battery almost no restrictions existing lithium-ion batteries 10 times more than the life of the road. In this paper, power plant or power system, installed in a building that can cope with the rapid increase in demand for power redox flow battery for 100kW PCS will be introduced.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.263-270
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• 2009

Carbon felt surface was modified by heat or acid treatment in order to use for the electrode of a redox-flow battery. Polymers on the surface of carbon felt was removed and oxygen-containing functional group was attached after the thermal treatment of carbon felt. Thermal treatment was better for the stability of the carbon structure than the acid treatment. Oxygen-containing functional group on the thermally treated carbon felt at 500$^{\circ}C$ was confirmed by XPS and elementary analysis. BET surface area was increased from nearly zero to 96 $m^2/g$. Thermally treated carbon felt at 500$^{\circ}C$ showed lower activation polarization than the thermally treated carbon felt at 400$^{\circ}C$ and the acid-treated carbon felt in the cyclicvoltammetry and polarization experiments. The thermally treated carbon felts at 400$^{\circ}C$ and 500$^{\circ}C$ and the acid-treated carbon felt was applied for the electrode to prepare vanadium redox flow battery. Voltage efficiencies of charge/discharge were 86.6%, 89.6%, and 96.9% for the thermally treated carbon felts at 400$^{\circ}C$ and 500$^{\circ}C$ and the acid-treated carbon felt, respectively.

• Membrane Journal
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.155-163
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• 2019

The anion exchange membrane using the blending polymer of poly(ether sulfone) and poly(phenylene sulfide sulfone) was prepared. It was confirmed by EDXS and FT-IR analysis that the prepared anion exchange membrane had the -N- as an anion exchange group. The ionic conductivity in 1 mol/L $H_2SO_4$ aqueous solution was measured. The ionic conductivity of the prepared anion exchange membrane was 0.015~0.083 S/cm, and had a high value compared with AFN and APS as a commercial anion exchange membrane. Permeabilities of the vanadium ions through the prepared anion exchange membrane were tested to evaluate the possibility as a separator in vanadium redox flow battery. Vanadium ion permeation rate in the prepared anion exchange membrane had a low value compared with Nafion 117 as a commercial cation exchange and AFN as a commercial anion exchange membrane.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.175.2-175.2
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• 2011

바나듐 3, 4, 5가 이온은 공기 중에서 안정하지만, 바나듐 2가 이온은 쉽게 산화된다. 그러므로 바나듐 2가 이온이 담겨져 있는 음극 탱크가 공기와 접촉하지 않게 하는 것이 중요하다. 충전 중 음극 탱크에 공기가 침투되면, 바나듐 2가 이온은 3가 이온으로 산화되기 때문에 음극과 양극의 전해질에 불균형을 초래한다. 이러한 불균형은 바나듐 레독스 흐름전지 용량저하의 원인이 된다. 본 연구에서는 공기 중 2가 이온 산화에 의한 전해질의 불균형 현상을 쉽게 보여주기 위해, 공기노출과 차단조건에서 충방전 중에 발생한 음극과 양극의 바나듐 이온 상태변화량을 UV-Visible spectrophotometer를 이용해 정량적으로 분석하였다. 분석 결과, 공기노출 조건에서 음극의 충전 시, 충방전 cycle이 진행 될수록 바나듐 2가 이온의 양이 현격히 줄어들었지만, 공기차단 조건에서는 2가 이온의 양이 공기노출 조건보다 훨씬 더 적게 줄어들었다. 즉, 공기차단 조건에서는 바나듐 2가 이온이 3가로 산화되지 않아서 음극의 충전 후 바나듐 3가에서 2가로 전환되는 양이 공기노출 조건보다 더 많은 것을 확인할 수 있었다. 이러한 영향으로 인해, 충방전 10th cycle을 진행해 본 결과, 공기차단 조건에서는 충방전 용량감소가 거의 없었지만 공기노출 조건에서는 현격한 충방전 용량 감소를 보였다.

• 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 the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.74-83
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• 2014

This paper proposes a study on the configuration of balancing of plant(BOP) and implementation of battery management system(BMS) functions for vanadium redox flow battery(VRFB) and propose a method consists of sensor and required design specifications BOP system configuration. And it proposes an method of the functions implementation and control algorithm of the BMS for flow battery. Functions of BMS include temperature control, the charge and discharge control, flow control, level control, state of charge(SOC) estimation and a battery protection through the sensor signal of BOP. Functions of BMS is implemented by the sensor signal, so it is recognized as a very important factor measurement accuracy of the data. Therefore, measuring a mechanical signal(flow rate, temperature, level) through the BOP test model, and the measuring an electrical signal(cell voltage, stack voltage and stack current) through the VRFB charge-discharge system and analyzes the precision of data in this paper. Also it shows a good charge-discharge test results by the SOC estimation algorithm of VRFB. Proposed BOP configuration and BMS functions implementation can be used as a reference indicator for VRFB system design.