Dissection of the Voltage Losses of an Acidic Quinone Redox Flow Battery

Journal Article · Tue Mar 28 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Journal of the Electrochemical Society

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1149/2.0721706jes· OSTI ID:1422403

Chen, Qing ^[1]; Gerhardt, Michael R. ^[2]; Aziz, Michael J. ^[2]

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1. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States). School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS); Hong Kong Univ. of Science and Technology, Kowloon (China). Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
2. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States). School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS)

We measure the polarization characteristics of a quinone-bromide redox flow battery with interdigitated flow fields, using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and voltammetry of a full cell and of a half cell against a reference electrode. We find linear polarization behavior at 50% state of charge all the way to the short-circuit current density of 2.5 A/cm². We uniquely identify the polarization area-specific resistance (ASR) of each electrode, the membrane ASR to ionic current, and the electronic contact ASR. We use voltage probes to deduce the electronic current density through each sheet of carbon paper in the quinone-bearing electrode. By also interpreting the results using the Newman 1-D porous electrode model, we deduce the volumetric exchange current density of the porous electrode. We uniquely evaluate the power dissipation and identify a correspondence to the contributions to the electrode ASR from the faradaic, electronic, and ionic transport processes. We find that, within the electrode, more power is dissipated in the faradaic process than in the electronic and ionic conduction processes combined, despite the observed linear polarization behavior. We examine the sensitivity of the ASR to the values of the model parameters. The greatest performance improvement is anticipated from increasing the volumetric exchange current density.

• Research Organization: Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E); Massachusetts Clean Energy Technology Center (MassCEC), Boston, MA (United States)
• Grant/Contract Number: AR0000348
• OSTI ID: 1422403
• Journal Information: Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Vol. 164, Issue 6; ISSN 0013-4651
• Publisher: The Electrochemical Society
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
25 ENERGY STORAGE
Flow batteries
Modeling