A Hybrid Mineral Battery: Energy Storage and Dissolution Behavior of CuFeS2 in a Fixed Bed Flow Cell

作者：Deen Kashif Mairaj; Asselin Edouard

来源：Chemsuschem, 2018, 11(9): 1533-1548.

DOI：10.1002/cssc.201800157

• electrochemistry
• energy conversion
• extraction
• interfaces
• voltammetry

The development of a hybrid system capable of storing energy and the additional benefit of Cu extraction is discussed in this work. A fixed bed flow cell (FBFC) was used in which a composite negative electrode containing CuFeS2 (80wt%) and carbon black (20wt%) in graphite felt was separated from a positive (graphite felt) electrode by a proton-exchange membrane. The anolyte (0.2m H2SO4) and catholyte (0.5m Fe2+ in 0.2m H2SO4 with or without 0.1m Cu2+) were circulated in the cell. The electrochemical activity of the Fe2+/Fe3+ redox couple over graphite felt significantly improved after the addition of Cu2+ in the catholyte. Ultimately, in the CuFeS2 vertical bar Fe2+/Cu2+ (CFeCu) FBFC system, the specific capacity increased continuously to 26.4mAhg(-1) in 500 galvanostatic charge-discharge (GCD) cycles, compared to the CuFeS2 vertical bar Fe2+ (CFe) system (13.9mAhg(-1)). Interestingly, the specific discharge energy gradually increased to 3.6Whkg(-1) in 500 GCD cycles for the CFeCu system compared to 3.29Whkg(-1) for the CFe system in 150cycles. In addition to energy storage, 10.75% Cu was also extracted from the mineral, which is an important feature of the CFeCu system as it would allow Cu extraction and recovery through hydrometallurgical methods.

• 出版日期2018-5-9