The Effect of Electrolyte Additives on the Performance of Iron Based Anodes for NiFe Cells

Jorge Omar Gil Posada,Peter J Hall

doi:10.1149/2.0451510jes

Jorge Omar Gil Posada, Peter J Hall

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1149/2.0451510jes

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Abstract

Aqueous electrolyte formulations for NiFe cells were prepared by using lithium hydroxide and potassium sulfide additives. The incidence of each additive on the overall performance of the NiFe cell was evaluated by cycling our in-house built bismuth sulfide based iron electrodes against commercially available nickel electrodes. In order to explore the composition space relevant to our formulations, a 12 replicates 3 × 4 full factorial experimental design was proposed to efficiently investigate the combined effect of both additives. Our experimental results suggest potassium sulfide enhances the performance of the battery. The role of lithium hydroxide is less clear but the evidence supports that it would increase coulombic efficiency to a lesser degree than potassium sulfide. This article demonstrates that by using a relatively simple manufacturing technique and low cost materials, it is possible to develop cost effective solutions to store large amounts of energy coming from renewables.

Highlights

There is a growing demand of energy from renewable sources;[1,2,3,4,5,6] temporary energy profiles and the availability of sun light restrict the use of such sources
Energy storage emerges as the natural solution to the asynchronous problem between energy generation and demand.[7,8]
There are many forms of energy storage with the potential to store grid amounts of energy coming from renewables

Summary

Introduction

There is a growing demand of energy from renewable sources;[1,2,3,4,5,6] temporary energy profiles and the availability of sun light restrict the use of such sources. We use an experimental design approach to efficiently investigate the incidence of lithium hydroxide and potassium sulfide as electrolyte additives to further increase the energy barrier for water decomposition, which in turn will increase the overall performance of the NiFe cell.

Results

Conclusion