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Effects of additives on the stability of electrolytes for all-vanadium redox flow batteries

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Abstract

The stability of the electrolytes for all-vanadium redox flow battery was investigated with ex-situ heating/cooling treatment and in situ flow-battery testing methods. The effects of inorganic and organic additives have been studied. The additives containing the ions of potassium, phosphate, and polyphosphate are not suitable stabilizing agents because of their reactions with V(V) ions, forming precipitates of KVSO6 or VOPO4. Of the chemicals studied, polyacrylic acid and its mixture with CH3SO3H are the most promising stabilizing candidates which can stabilize all the four vanadium ions (V2+, V3+, VO2+, and VO2 +) in electrolyte solutions up to 1.8 M. However, further effort is needed to obtain a stable electrolyte solution with >1.8 M V5+ at temperatures higher than 40 °C.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Office of Electricity Delivery & Energy Reliability (OE, project manager: Dr. Imre Gyuk), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under contract #57558, and by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, 99352, USA

    Jianlu Zhang, Liyu Li, Zimin Nie, Baowei Chen, M. Vijayakumar, Soowhan Kim, Wei Wang, Birgit Schwenzer, Jun Liu & Zhenguo Yang

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  1. Jianlu Zhang
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  2. Liyu Li
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  3. Zimin Nie
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  4. Baowei Chen
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  5. M. Vijayakumar
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  7. Wei Wang
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  8. Birgit Schwenzer
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  9. Jun Liu
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  10. Zhenguo Yang
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Correspondence to Liyu Li or Zhenguo Yang.

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Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is a multiprogram laboratory operated by Battelle Memorial Institute for the Department of Energy under Contract DE-AC05-76RL01830. Use of specific brands or trademarks is for research purpose only and does not constitute an endorsement.

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Zhang, J., Li, L., Nie, Z. et al. Effects of additives on the stability of electrolytes for all-vanadium redox flow batteries. J Appl Electrochem 41, 1215–1221 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-011-0312-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10800-011-0312-1

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