An electrolyte with high thermal stability for the vanadium redox flow battery

摘要

Vanadium Redox flow Battery (VRB) cannot be used in the widespread environment because the problem of generating V_2O_5 precipitation has restricted to its industrialization. To overcome this problem, this paper describes the thermally stable vanadium positive electrolyte using sodium oxalate as a supporting material for the VRB. To show the effectiveness of the proposed solution, thermal stability experiment at 60°C, viscosity measurement and electrochemical analysis (i.e., cyclic voltammetry, charge-discharge test, and scanning electron microscopy) were carried out, respectively. The experimental results indicate that the new electrolyte improves the charging and discharging capacity by about more than 18% for 30 cycles when compared with the pristine electrolyte, and can provide a higher thermal stability for the long-time operation of the VRB. Consequently, sodium oxalate is shown to provide an electrolyteadditive solution for high-temperature operations of the VRB.