Textile waste as carbon source for redox flow battery electrodes

氧化还原液流电池是一种坚固、灵活且可能非常便宜的储能设备，对于长时间的储能应用正变得越来越重要。虽然已经有很多工作在开发用于液流电池的氧化还原电偶，但碳电极的定制仍然没有得到充分的研究，主要是借鉴燃料电池的做法。这个PHD项目将探索利用纺织废料作为氧化还原液流电池电极的碳源，包括棉花、亚克力和聚酯。将研究这些材料在热处理(碳化)和功能化后的结构、元素组成和电化学活性，并有机会优化热处理方法，材料来源和前处理的影响，以及碳化前后织物的结构。

Redox flow batteries are robust, flexible and potentially very cheap energy storage devices that are becoming increasingly relevant for long-duration energy storage applications. While there has been much work on the development of redox couples tailored to use in flow batteries, the tailoring of the carbon electrodes remain under-researched, being largely borrowed from fuel cells. This PhD project will explore the use of textile waste as carbon source for redox flow battery electrodes, including cotton, acrylic and polyester. The structure, elemental composition and electrochemical activity of these materials after thermal treatment (carbonisation) and functionalisation will be studied, with opportunities to optimise thermal treatment methodology, the effect of material origin and pre-treatment, as well as the structure of the fabric before and after carbonization.