Recently, Energy Storage Division (DNL 17) leaded by Prof. Huamin Zhang and Prof. Xianfeng Li made new progress in key materials of zinc bromine flow battery.

Zinc bromine flow battery possesses the advantages of high theory energy density and low cost, therefore is very promising for large scale energy storage application. However, the relative lower reaction rate of Br2/Br- leads to the low operating current density (~20 mA/cm2) and further low power density, which limits the development of zinc bromine flow battery. In order to accelerate the reaction rate of Br2/Br- and improve the power density of VFB, this research group develops bimodal highly ordered mesostructure carbon, which is successfully applied in zinc bromine flow battery, which achieves the energy efficiency over 80% at 80 mA/cm2. The excellent activity owes to the high specific surface area providing more active site to Br2/Br- reaction and the highly ordered structure reducing the diffusion resistance and shortening the diffusion distance. This work will play very important role in exploring high power density low cost zinc bromine flow battery. This work had been published online by Nano Energy. (Nano Energy, 2016, 21, 217-227).

DICP Researchers Develop Bimodal Highly Ordered Mesostructure Carbon Applied in Zinc Bromine Flow Battery with High Energy Efficiency (Photo by WANG Chenhui)

This work is financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China, Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemistry for Energy Materials, and DICP-ICL collaborate project.(Text/Photo by WANG Chenhui)

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