Front Cover: X‐ray Nano Computed Tomography of Electrospun Fibrous Mats as Flow Battery Electrodes (Energy Technol. 12/2018)

Abstract

Characterisation of Electrospun Electrodes for Redox Flow Batteries: Redox flow batteries represent a possible grid‐scale energy storage solution, having the ability to decouple power and energy and suffering from less extreme degradation issues compared to other technologies such as lithium ion batteries. Currently, they employ woven carbon fibre felts as electrodes that provide the surface on which redox reactions take place, as well as a 3D microstructure through which the electrolyte containing the redox active species flows. The flow characteristics of such electrodes are intrinsically linked to their microstructure and a significant parasitic power loss can occur due to the pumping of the electrolyte through unoptimized structures. In the Full Paper by Rhodri Jervis et al., an electrospinning technique is employed to create highly tunable microstructure, fibre size and alignment in novel electrodes with varying degrees of anisotropy. Lab‐based x‐ray nano‐computed tomography allows, for the first time, highly resolved 3D imaging of electrospun fibres with diameters below 0.5 μm. Obtaining virtual 3D structures of the electrodes with sufficient detail allows the accurate computational extraction of various parameters pertaining to the performance of redox flow batteries, giving guidance to a more thoughtful design of next generation materials. More details can be found in the Full Paper by Rhodri Jervis et al. on page 2488 in Issue 12, 2018 (10.1002/ente.201800338).