Graphite felt has good stability, the unit cost of large surface area, good permeability of the advantages of electrode materials used in direct methanol fuel cell flow, but because of its poor hydrophilicity, electrochemical activity is not high, which greatly limits its application. Therefore, we try to improve the electrochemical properties of carbon atoms by changing the electronic structure of carbon atoms. Although the nitrogen doped graphite felt has been reported sporadically, the research on the nitrogen doped graphite felt used as the cathode of direct flow methanol fuel cell is still in the blank.
With the energy and environmental problems become more and more prominent, the research and development of green, pollution-free new energy has been attached great importance by the enterprises and the government. Fuel cell is a kind of clean energy which can directly convert the chemical energy into electric energy.
The graphite felt has the advantages of good stability, large surface area per unit cost and good fluid permeability, but its application is limited because of its poor hydrophilicity and low electrochemical activity. Therefore, it is hoped that the surface treatment can improve its electrochemical performance. Commonly used acid treatment, heat treatment, electrochemical oxidation, rare earth ion modification methods.
The electrode material is one of the key factors to restrict the development of the liquid flow battery. It needs to meet the requirements of high conductivity, large surface area, high selectivity to a specific reaction, good electrochemical activity, good chemical stability and so on. The main researches are metal, composite and carbon. The metal electrode has good conductivity, excellent mechanical properties, high electrochemical activity, but the stability in the anode region is poor and expensive, it is not suitable for large-scale applications; composite electrode material is a polymer and conductive carbon mixing, drying and tabletting after prepared, while improving the conductivity, oxidation but the need to overcome the polymer at high temperature; carbon electrode mainly include carbon cloth, graphite, carbon fiber and graphite felt, good stability and low cost, but the graphite, carbon fiber and carbon cloth used as electrode, a few cycles, the electrode surface is damaged, only the graphite felt electrode is the present study is more and more widely used as electrode material.
