A Thin Fiber Film Rotating Disk Electrode Analysis of Carbon Felt for Redox Flow Battery Application

摘要

Redox flow battery technology shares several design features of fuel cells but uses liquid electrolytes as the energy storage medium. These batteries utilize a carbon felt as the electrode surface for the redox reactions. Thin film rotating disk electrodes are a widely used technique for evaluation of fuel cell catalysts because it allows for the isolation of interfacial kinetics from mass transfer and ohmic effects. Adaptation of this technique to carbon felt fibers as an experimental method for the evaluation of felt electrode materials was explored in this research. Capacitance results show good electrical connectivity within the deposited film of carbon felt fibers, however voltammetric and RDE experiments point towards a multidimensional diffusion profile within the fiber layer. Porous electrode modeling may shed light on the complex diffusion and ohmic mechanisms.