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Mesoporous silica and titania supraparticles with controllable pore size, particle size, and macroscopic morphology were readily synthesized by a novel synthetic pathway using meniscus templating on a superhydrophobic surface, which is much simpler than well-known emulsion systems. Moreover, we first report that despite the very large radius of droplet curvature on a millimeter scale, supraparticles kept the round cap morphology due to addition of sucrose as a shape preserver as well as a pore-forming agent. In addition, mesoporous silica and titania supraparticles provided good adsorption performance for Acid Blue 25 and Cr(VI), and were easily separated from the solution by using a scoop net after adsorption tests.

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The vanadium redox flow battery is considered one of the most promising candidates for use in large-scale energy storage systems. However, its commercialization has been hindered due to the high manufacturing cost of the vanadium electrolyte, which is currently prepared using a costly electrolysis method with limited productivity. In this work, we present a simpler method for chemical production of impurity-free V3.5+ electrolyte by utilizing formic acid as a reducing agent and Pt/C as a catalyst. With the catalytic reduction of V4+ electrolyte, a high quality V3.5+ electrolyte was successfully produced and excellent cell performance was achieved. Based on the result, a prototype catalytic reactor employing Pt/C-decorated carbon felt was designed, and high-speed, continuous production of V3.5+ electrolyte in this manner was demonstrated with the reactor. This invention offers a simple but practical strategy to reduce the production cost of V3.5+ electrolyte while retaining quality that is adequate for high-performance operations.