Use of Carbon Additives towards Rechargeable Zinc Slurry Air Flow Batteries

Nak Heon Choi, Diego del Olmo, Diego Milian, Nadia El Kissi, Peter Fischer, Karsten Pinkwart and Jens Tübke
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Nak Heon Choi: Applied Electrochemistry, Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT, Joseph-von-Fraunhofer, Straße 7, 76327 Pfinztal, Germany
Diego del Olmo: Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Chemistry and Technology Prague, Technická 5, 16628 Prague 6, Czech Republic
Diego Milian: CNRS, Grenoble INP, LRP, Institute of Engineering, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, LRP, 38000 Grenoble, France
Nadia El Kissi: CNRS, Grenoble INP, LRP, Institute of Engineering, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, LRP, 38000 Grenoble, France
Peter Fischer: Applied Electrochemistry, Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT, Joseph-von-Fraunhofer, Straße 7, 76327 Pfinztal, Germany
Karsten Pinkwart: Applied Electrochemistry, Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT, Joseph-von-Fraunhofer, Straße 7, 76327 Pfinztal, Germany
Jens Tübke: Applied Electrochemistry, Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT, Joseph-von-Fraunhofer, Straße 7, 76327 Pfinztal, Germany

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 17, 1-12

Abstract: The performance of redox flow batteries is notably influenced by the electrolyte, especially in slurry-based flow batteries, as it serves as both an ionic conductive electrolyte and a flowing electrode. In this study, carbon additives were introduced to achieve a rechargeable zinc slurry flow battery by minimizing the zinc plating on the bipolar plate that occurs during charging. When no carbon additive was present in the zinc slurry, the discharge current density was 24 mA?cm −2 at 0.6 V, while the use of carbon additives increased it to up to 38 mA?cm −2 . The maximum power density was also increased from 16 mW?cm −2 to 23 mW?cm −2 . Moreover, the amount of zinc plated on the bipolar plate during charging decreased with increasing carbon content in the slurry. Rheological investigation revealed that the elastic modulus and yield stress are directly proportional to the carbon content in the slurry, which is beneficial for redox flow battery applications, but comes at the expense of an increase in viscosity (two-fold increase at 100 s −1 ). These results show how the use of conductive additives can enhance the energy density of slurry-based flow batteries.

Keywords: zinc slurry air flow battery; redox flow battery; zinc-air battery; carbon additives; rheology (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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