Manufacturing Electrodes with Tailored Structures for Efficient Mass Transport in Flow Batteries: Challenges and Opportunities

Deep and rapid decarbonisation of the global energy systems require the wholesale replacement of fossil fuels with renewable resources (e.g., wind, solar). However, these resources are intermittent and unpredictable challenging the existing grid infrastructure which is based on the just-in-time dispatchable generation enabled by combustion of fossil fuels. As such, flexible energy management systems, including electrochemical energy storage technologies, are urgently required to enable reliable electricity delivery from the variable assets. Among them, redox flow batteries (RFBs) are excellent candidates for large-scale, long duration energy storage due to their flexible design, long service life, high reliability, and environmental friendliness. Nevertheless, this technology is still in its infancy in terms of optimisation of materials and battery design that can lead to improvement in performance and cost. Our research seeks to improve upon one of their performance-determining components: the electrodes. In my talk, I will present our work on the use of electrospinning to produce self-supporting materials highly conducting and consisting of fibres of 500nm - 1micron diameter. I will also introduce our approach to replace commonly employed petrol-derived materials with biomass-waste carbon electrodes via electrospinning. Electrospinning is a versatile technique that allows the production of freestanding fibrous materials with tailored properties, including fibre diameter, surface chemistry and alignment of fibres. Finally, I will summarise the main challenges and opportunities to the development of efficient electrodes with optimised mass transport and charge transfer for redox flow batteries.