Acta Phys. -Chim. Sin. ›› 2016, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (12): 2941-2950.doi: 10.3866/PKU.WHXB201609195

• ARTICLE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Hydrogen Bromine Battery Structure Optimization and the Operation Condition Effects on Battery Performance

Ji-Cheng SHI1,Hong-Feng XU1,*(),Lu LU1,Jun GAO2   

  1. 1 Liaoning Province Key Laboratory of New Energy Battery, College of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Dalian Jiaotong University, Dalian 116028, Liaoning Province, P. R. China
    2 Heilongjiang Daqing Refining & Chemical Company, Daqing 163411, Heilongjiang Province, P. R. China
  • Received:2016-07-20 Published:2016-11-30
  • Contact: Hong-Feng XU E-mail:hfxu@fuelcell.com.cn
  • Supported by:
    The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(21376034,21406024);and National High-Tech Research andDevelopment Program, China (863)(2012AA052002)

Abstract:

This paper studies how particular factors affect hydrogen bromine batteries, including the cell structure, the hydrobromic acid and bromine concentrations, the hydrogen pressure and the proton exchange membrane thickness. After the Pt/C hydrophobic catalyst layer was loaded onto the carbon paper, the hydrogen bromine battery worked at 200 mA·cm-2 current density and the battery Coulombic efficiency was 100%. The bromine electrode electrochemical reaction was controlled by the concentration polarization. The battery performance improved when the hydrobromic acid concentration increased. The bromine solubility also increased at the higher hydrobromic acid concentration and the battery discharge performance improved. When the hydrobromic acid concentration was increased from 0.5 mol·L-1 to 1 mol·L-1, the energy efficiency and the voltage efficiency increased by 27.9% at the current density of 200 mA·cm-2. In the charge process, as the hydrogen pressure was reduced, the battery charging performance improved, but severe membrane acid permeability was observed. In the discharge process, the optimal hydrogen pressure was able to maintain the monolayer hydrogen adsorption on the hydrophobic catalyst layer on the carbon paper. The energy efficiency was 80.2% at 40.0 kPa hydrogen pressure in the charge and discharge processes. In the charge process, the membrane thickness was closely related to the membrane resistance polarization and the membrane acid permeability. After the membrane thickness was reduced from 50.0 to 15.0 μm, acid permeability through the membrane was more severe. This reduced the electrochemical active surface area and a reduction in the battery performance was observed. In the discharge process, the membrane acid permeability was the leading factor at the lower current density; the battery with the 50.0 μm Nafion membrane had a higher discharge performance. As the current density was >200 mA·cm-2, the membrane polarization resistance was the dominated factor; the battery with the 15.0 μm Nafion membrane had a higher discharge performance. With the 20.0 μm proton exchange membrane, the energy efficiency and voltage efficiency of the hydrogen bromine battery were 85.3% and the Coulombic efficiency was 100% at the current density of 200 mA·cm-2 with five cycles.

Key words: Hydrogen bromine battery, Membrane electrode, Proton exchange membrane, Membrane acid permeability, Battery efficiency