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Modification of graphite-based composite bipolar plates by “nanoglue” strategy for vanadium redox flow battery

  • Carbon Letters
  • Abbr : Carbon Lett.
  • 2025, 35(4), pp.1589~1597
  • DOI : 10.1007/s42823-025-00873-y
  • Publisher : Korean Carbon Society
  • Research Area : Natural Science > Natural Science General > Other Natural Sciences General
  • Received : September 26, 2024
  • Accepted : January 26, 2025
  • Published : December 11, 2025

Kang Yingbo 1 Zhang Hai 1 Weng Yinglong 1 Han Xiaotong 2 Zhang Jianping 2 Huang Tingting 2 Li Zhefeng 2

1Liaoning University of Technology
2Chongqing University

Accredited

ABSTRACT

All-vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) has been considered as a promising candidate for the construction of renewable energy storage system. Expanded graphite possesses immense potential for use as typical bipolar plates in VRFB stacks. Nevertheless, the pure expanded graphite bipolar plates suffer from severe swelling in electrolyte, resulting in the losses of mechanical stability and electrical conductivity, thus leading to the efficiency decay within several cycles. Herein, we present a “nanoglue” strategy for tuning the structure/surface properties of expanded graphite by employing polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) polymer as structural sealant. Such PVDF “nanoglue” on expanded graphite results in the fine-repairment toward the surface microcracks and cross-section edges, which is beneficial to suppress the electrolyte permeation and improve the anti-swelling capacity. Moreover, it has been found that the PVDF “nanoglue” can improve the flexibility, allowing for the fabrication of ultrathin bipolar plates (0.67 mm) with low electrical resistivity. Benefiting from these integrated characteristics, the VRFB employing the as-fabricated composite bipolar plates delivers excellent cyclic efficiencies (voltage efficiency, coulombic efficiency, and energy efficiency) and ultralow ohmic voltage loss of less than 1.1 mV (< 0.1% of the VRFB rated voltage of 1.25 V) at a high current density of 200 mA cm−2.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2024 are currently being built.