Electrocatalytic activity of cobalt phosphide-modified graphite felt toward VO~(2+)/VO_2~+ redox reaction

摘要

Highlights•CoP was for the first time used as electro-catalyst for vanadium redox flow battery.•The CoP particles inherit the morphology of the precursor Co-MOF.•The CoP shows excellent catalytic activity and improves the reaction reversibility.AbstractA novel strategy for improving the electro-catalytic properties of graphite felt (GF) electrode in vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) is designed by depositing cobalt phosphide (CoP) onto GF surface. The CoP powder is synthesized by direct carbonization of Co-based zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-67) followed by phosphidation. Cyclic voltammetry results confirm that the CoP-modified graphite felt (GF-CoP) electrode has excellent reversibility and electro-catalytic activity to the VO2+/VO2+cathodic reaction compared with the pristine GF electrode. The cell using GF-CoP electrode shows apparently higher discharge capacity over that based on GF electrode. The cell using GF-CoP electrode has the capacity of 67.2 mA h at 100 mA cm−2, 32.7 mA h larger than that using GF electrode. Compared with cell using GF electrode, the voltage efficiency of the cell based on GF-CoP electrode increases by 5.9% and energy efficiency by 5.4% at a current density of 100 mA cm−2. The cell using GF-CoP electrode can reach 94.31% capacity retention after 50 cycles at a current density of 30 mA cm−2. The results show that the CoP can effectively promote the VO2+/VO2+redox reaction, implying that metal phosphides are a new kind of potential catalytic materials for VRFB.