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Abstract
Improvisation of Fe-Cr redox flow cell performance was significantly related to reversibility of the Cr(III)/ Cr(II) redox couple. To catalyze this redox reaction Bi and Pb metals were electroplated on carbon felt for reduction and oxidation of chromium. To achieve a better performance of redox flow cell these electroplated carbon felts are used on negative side of the flow cell. The flow cell experiments are carried out with only Bi electroplated felts using 0.01N PbCl2 as additive in anolyte and another carbon felts are electroplated with the combination of Bi-Pb and used on negative side of the cell without any additive. The experimental results observed that the Bi electroplated felts with PbCl2 additive shows 100% chromium reduction efficiency, 96% coulombic efficiency and 65% energy efficiency. While Bi and Pb combination felts without any additive has shown 100% chromium reduction efficiency, 98% coulombic efficiency and 72% energy efficiency. The cell operated with 5 liters of electrolytes containing 1.3N active materials dissolved in 2N HCl solution. 100 cm2 carbon felt samples were utilized as electrodes at a current density of 50 mA/ cm2. Nafion-117 PFSA membrane was used as a separator because of its high chemical and mechanical stability.