Development of titanium 3D mesh interlayer for enhancing the electrochemical performance of zinc–bromine flow battery

Abstract

Zinc dendrite growth negatively affects zinc–bromine flow battery (ZBB) performance by causing membrane damage, inducing self-discharge. Herein, in a ZBB, a conventional polymer mesh was replaced with a titanium-based mesh interlayer; this provided additional abundant active sites for the Zn2+/Zn redox reaction and well-developed electrolyte flow channels, which resulted in improved reaction kinetics and suppressed Zn dendrite growth. Compared with a ZBB cell comprising a conventional polymer mesh and a carbon-based electrode, the ZBB cell using the titanium mesh interlayer and a carbon-based electrode showed significantly reduced frequency of the refreshing process, which occurs at regular cycling intervals during practical use for removing residual zinc dendrites in ZBB; also, the average energy efficiency at a current density of 40 mA cm−2 increased by 38.5%. Moreover, the modified ZBB cell exhibited higher energy efficiency at a high current density of 80 mA cm−2, which is an improvement of 14.7% than in case of the contemporary polymer mesh. Consequently, this study can provide helpful insights for new anode side structures including spacer mesh for developing high-performance ZBBs.

Review—Current Collectors for Rechargeable Batteries: State-of-the-Art Design and Development Strategies for Commercial Products

“…The positive and negative electrode surfaces are attached to two opposite sides of the bipolar plate, and the in-between solid support is called a current collector. Different redox flow batteries with various electro-chemistries are extensively studied, and a few of them are mentioned herein; (i) all vanadium flow batteries, 118 (ii) vanadium-polyhalide flow battery, 119 (iii) vanadium-metal hydride flow battery, 120 (iv) soluble lead flow battery, 121 (v) polysulfide-bromide flow battery, 122 (vi) zinc-bromine flow battery, 123 (vii) zinc-cerium flow battery, 124 (viii) zinc-polyiodide flow battery, 125 (ix) manganese-zinc flow battery, 126 (x) iron redox flow battery 127 etc. Research and development of electrode materials, electrolytes, membranes, flow fields, battery stacks, electrolyte tanks, etc are extensively going on; but the studies on current collectors are not much extensive.…”

Cathode materials for halide-based aqueous redox flow batteries: recent progress and future perspectives

“…52 Kim et al attempted to use the titanium-based mesh to replace the conventional polymer mesh as the electro-active material to impart versatile functionality, retaining the dimensional space upon deposition and stripping, and sufficient electrolyte diffusion at the anode side. 53 He et al employed an anion-conducting polymer containing the poly (biphenyl pyridine) (PBP) backbone to function as the bromide conductor and polybromide confiner. 54 Lu et al used lamella-like porous carbon nitride nanosheets (PCNS) with adsorption and spatial confinement effects to modify cathodes for ZBRFB.…”

Redox Flow Batteries: Materials, Design and Prospects

“…An 88% EE at 50 mA cm −2 was achieved using the mentioned strategy [253]. Lee et al [254] implemented a titanium-based mesh interlayer with a carbon-based electrode to suppress the formation of dendrites, achieving 48.2% EE at 40 mA cm −2 . A cathode catalyst of carbon-manganite nanoflakes in combination with a K + -conducting membrane were studied by X. Yuan and his team.…”