Corn protein-derived nitrogen-doped carbon materials with oxygen-rich functional groups: a highly efficient electrocatalyst for all-vanadium redox flow batteries

Recent studies on all-vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) have focused on carbon-based materials for cost-effective electrocatalysts to commercialize them in grid-scale energy storage markets. We report an environmentally friendly and safe method to produce carbon-based catalysts by corn protein self-assembly. This new method allows carbon black (CB) nanoparticles to be coated with nitrogen-doped graphitic layers with oxygen-rich functionalities (N-CB). We observed increased catalytic activity of this catalyst toward both V2+/V3+ and VO2+/VO2+ ions, showing a 24% increased mass transfer process and ca. 50 mV higher reduction onset potential compared to CB catalyst. It is believed that the abundant oxygen active sites and nitrogen defects in the N-CB catalyst are beneficial to the vanadium redox reaction by improving the electron transfer rate and giving faster vanadium ion transfer kinetics.