Preparation of a Nitrogen-Doped Reduced Graphene Oxide-Modified Graphite Felt Electrode for VO2+/VO2+ Reaction by Freeze-Drying and Pyrolysis Method

Abstract

As one of the key factors that limit the development of vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB), the positive redox couple of VO2+/VO2+ plays an important role on the overall performance of VRFB. To improve the kinetics of a positive reaction, a new designed nitrogen-doped reduced graphene oxide-modified graphite felt (N-rGO/GF) electrode was prepared by coupling the methods of freeze-drying and pyrolysis. The characteristics of the prepared electrode were measured by scanning electron microscope (SEM), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis, Raman spectroscopy (Raman), X-ray diffraction (XRD), cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and charge-discharge tests. By coupling the methods of freeze-drying and pyrolysis, the N-rGO can be evenly dispersed on the surface of GF electrode, resulting in an excellent catalytic activity. The results demonstrate that the proposed N-rGO/GF electrode with pyrolysis temperature of 900°C shows excellent electrochemical performance and significantly improves the catalytic activity and electrochemical reversibility for the positive VO2+/VO2+ reaction, indicating that the proposed composite electrode has potential applications in the improvement of VRFB performance.