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Progress in Chemistry 2022, Vol. 34 Issue (6): 1290-1297 DOI: 10.7536/PC210839 Previous Articles   Next Articles

• Review •

Graphite-based Composite Bipolar Plates for Flow Batteries

Fengjing Jiang(), Hanchen Song   

  1. School of Mechanical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University,Shanghai 200240, China
  • Received: Revised: Online: Published:
  • Contact: Fengjing Jiang
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Flow battery is considered a promising technology for large-scale energy storage, because of its high safety, long service life, and scalability. It can assist the power grid in peak shaving and energy storage, which will help to improve the energy utilization. Bipolar plate is a key component in a flow battery, which can separate single cells, connect the adjacent electrodes in series, help to conduct electric current and provide structural support for the stack. However, the cost of bipolar plate accounts for a big proportion of the total stack cost. It is of great significance to develop high-performance and low-cost bipolar plates, which will significantly accelerate the commercialization of flow batteries. Thus, its development has become an urgent need in the flow battery industry. Although much work related to the development of bipolar plates has been carried out, there is still lack of ideal bipolar plate products in the market, taking both their performance and cost into consideration. This article focuses on the introduction of current research status on graphite-based composite bipolar plates for flow batteries and the influence of material selection and processing techniques on the performance of bipolar plates, including electrical conductivity, mechanical strength, barrier properties, and corrosion resistance. Based on the review, some suggestions are made for the further developments of bipolar plates for flow batteries.

Contents

1 Introduction

2 Key performance and requirements of graphite-based composite bipolar plates

2.1 Electrical conductivity

2.2 Mechanical strength

2.3 Barrier properties

2.4 Corrosion resistance

2.5 Economical requirements

3 Conclusion and outlook

Key words: bipolar plate, flow battery, carbon materials, carbon polymer composites
Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of contact resistance test[1]
Table 1 Electrical properties of composite bipolar plates for flow batteries
No. Reference Material Fabrication Method Resistivity/(mΩ·cm) Area specific
resistance/
(mΩ·cm2)		 Testing pressure/
(MPa)
1 Lee et al. (2012)[41] graphite, carbon black, epoxy resin compression molding ~33.3 - -
2 Kim et al. (2014)[33] carbon felt, expanded graphite foils, epoxy resin hot press method - ~147 -
3 Park et al. (2014)[14] Natural graphite flake, Ketjenblack carbon, epoxy resin compression molding 8.8 - -
4 Lee et al. (2015)[35] unidirectional carbon/epoxy prepreg compression molding,
surface treatment		 - 18 1.38
5 Satola et al. (2016)[42] graphite, polypropylene injection molding 29.5 - -
6 Yang et al. (2017)[43] carbon felt, polyethylene (PE) compression molding 3.13 - -
7 Nam et al. (2017)[44] plane weave carbon fiber fabrics, nano-size carbon black,
fluoroelastomer		 compression molding - 143~156 0.05
8 Lee et al. (2018)[37] unidirectional carbon fiber/epoxy
prepreg		 compression molding,
surface treatment		 - 210 0.05
9 Liao et al. (2020)[20] graphene, carbon fiber, graphite powder, polyethylene hot press method, coating treatment 2.4 5 -
10 Jiang et al. (2021)[22] graphite, expanded graphite powder, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) compression molding,
surface treatment		 5 25.4 -
Table 2 Mechanical properties of composite bipolar plates for flow batteries
No. Reference Material Fabrication Method Flexural strength/(MPa) Tensile strength/
(MPa)
1 Park et al. (2014)[14] natural graphite flake, ketjenblack carbon, epoxy resin compression molding 26 -
2 Caglar et al. (2014)[59] synthetic graphite, carbon nanotube, polyphenylene sulfide (PPS) injection molding ~75 -
3 Lee et al. (2017)[60] non-woven carbon felt, film type epoxy adhesive compression molding - 79.3
4 Yang et al. (2017)[43] carbon felt, polyethylene (PE) compression molding - 18.56
5 Nam et al. (2017)[44] plane weave carbon fiber fabrics, nano-size carbon black, fluoroelastomer compression molding - 308~358
6 Lee et al. (2018)[37] unidirectional carbon fiber/epoxy prepreg compression molding,
surface treatment		 - 471
7 Liao et al. (2019)[23] graphite powder, graphene, epoxy resin hot press method 48.1 -
Fig. 2 Proportion of the cost of BP in the total cost of all-vanadium redox flow battery and Fe-V flow battery[72]
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