Enhanced Catalysis of P-doped SnO2 for the V2+/V3+ Redox Reaction in Vanadium Redox Flow Battery

Xiaojian Feng; Zixuan Zhang; Tongxue Zhang; Jing Xue; Chao Han; Lei Dai; Ling Wang; Zhangxing He

doi:10.3389/fchem.2021.688634

Enhanced Catalysis of P-doped SnO₂ for the V²⁺/V³⁺ Redox Reaction in Vanadium Redox Flow Battery

Front Chem. 2021 Jun 24:9:688634. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2021.688634. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Xiaojian Feng¹, Zixuan Zhang¹, Tongxue Zhang¹, Jing Xue¹, Chao Han¹, Lei Dai¹, Ling Wang¹, Zhangxing He¹

Affiliation

¹ School of Chemical Engineering, North China University of Science and Technology, Tangshan, China.

Abstract

In this work, nanosized P-doped SnO₂ (SnO₂-P) was prepared by a sol-gel method as a catalyst for the V³⁺/V²⁺ redox reaction in vanadium redox flow battery. Compared with SnO₂, the electrochemical performance of SnO₂-P is significantly improved. This is because P doping provides more active sites and shows greatly improved electrical conductivity, thereby increasing the electron transfer rate. As a result, SnO₂-P shows better catalytic performance than SnO₂. The SnO₂-P modified cell is designed, and it exhibits an increase of 47.2 mA h in discharge capacity and 8.7% in energy efficiency compared with the pristine cell at 150 mA cm^-2. These increases indicate that the modified cell has a higher electrolyte utilization rate. This study shows that SnO₂-P is a new and efficient catalyst for vanadium redox flow battery.

Keywords: P doping; electrocatalyst; energy storage; tin dioxide; vanadium redox flow battery.