Flow field structure design for redox flow battery: Developments and Prospects

Flow field is an important component for redox flow battery (RFB), which plays a great role in electrolyte flow and species distribution in porous electrode to enhance the mass transport. Besides, flow field structure also has a great influence in pressure drop of the battery. Better flow field not only can improve the mass transport in electrode but also is able to decrease the pressure drop of RFB. To achieve the goal, it is essential to investigate the development of flow field structure design in RFB and extracts the guidelines for better flow field with stronger mass transport and lower pressure drop. In this review, the flow and distribution characteristics of traditional flow fields are presented. The effects of traditional flow fields on distribution uniformities in single battery and in stack are introduced. The effects of flow rate and electrode structure on performance of traditional flow fields and channel dimension designs are discussed. Various novel flow field structures are introduced and key features of different novel flow fields are summarized. Optimized flow fields by topology optimization and genetic algorithm are introduced. Scale-up methods for flow fields and comparisons are exhibited. Prospects such as potential strategies, research in stack level, database establishment and artificial intelligence optimization for flow field structure design in RFB are illustrated.