Applying 'Plant Root Design' to Secondary Battery Electrode Catalysts Increases Capacity and Efficiency

Pukyong National University announced research results showing that applying a ‘plant root design strategy’ to catalysts for next-generation secondary battery electrodes secured high durability.

The research team led by Professor Go Minseong at Pukyong National University, in collaboration with Dr. Jang Haeseong from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the United States, succeeded in developing a highly durable graphite electrode catalyst using carbon nanotubes.

Recently, the aqueous energy storage device ‘vanadium redox flow battery,’ which poses no fire risk, has attracted attention as a next-generation secondary battery, making design research to secure long life and high capacity of batteries a major focus.

According to the Pukyong National University research team, vanadium redox flow batteries use expensive precious metals or transition metal oxides as electrode catalysts to achieve high energy density. However, continuous friction caused by the flow of acidic electrolyte leads to corrosion and damage on the electrode surface and catalyst materials.

To solve the corrosion and damage problem, Professor Go Minseong’s team applied a plant root design strategy to the electrode catalyst. This synthetic process involves embedding carbon nanotubes into the carbon support inside the graphite electrode, similar to how plant roots are firmly anchored in the soil.

Schematic diagram of graphite electrode synthesis resembling plant roots.

The research team utilized the reduction between the graphite electrode and nickel catalyst to allow nickel nanoparticles to penetrate inside the electrode and used hydrocarbon gas to induce the growth of carbon nanotubes from within the electrode.

The composite electrode with carbon nanotube catalyst developed by the team demonstrated high durability against the acidic electrolyte environment and electrolyte flow characteristic of redox flow batteries.

Experimental results showed that this electrode improved capacity performance by 40% compared to conventional graphite electrodes and achieved a high energy efficiency of 86.9%.

Professor Go Minseong stated, “The plant root-like design can be synthesized relatively easily using the Chemical Vapor Deposition method, so it is expected to be stably applicable to various aqueous flow batteries beyond vanadium.”

This research, supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea, was recently published in the international academic journal in the field of carbon materials, ‘Carbon.’

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.