Scientific Achievement
Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) microparticles with nearly identical chemical composition but different surface areas and pore structures are evaluated in vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs).
Significance and Impact
The range of unique processing conditions for rGOs leads to materials with disparate elemental composition and porous structure; the present study elucidates effects of surface texture on VRFB performance by varying the drying step in the graphene synthesis.
Research Details
- rGO is dried using vacuum (rGO-vacuum) and carbon dioxide critical point drying (rGO-CPD)
- The rGO-CPD exhibits a ca. 9.3× increase in surface area relative to the rGO-vacuum, while possessing the same chemical and physical properties
- Flow deposited rGO-CPD onto pristine felt electrodes leads to greater performance improvements than that of the rGO-vacuum
