Carbon felt based-electrodes for energy and environmental applications: A review

Abstract

Carbonaceous materials are abundantly used for electrochemical applications and especially for energy and environmental purposes. In this review, the carbon felt (CF) based-electrodes are discussed in a holistic manner. First of all, the study centers on the issues relevant to pristine CF materials such as manufacturing method and specific properties. The various methods and equations used to identify physical values of CF material are supplied. As main part of the review, the different modification methods for CF electrodes are described. The novel properties of fabricated materials are characterized by physical as well as electrochemical techniques. The strengths of each method are presented in the comparison with raw CF electrodes. The energy applications of CF based-electrodes are figured out in various fields such as vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFB), microbial fuel cells (MFCs), biofuel cells (BFCs), capacitors, solar cells and lithium ion batteries. For environmental applications, we focus our study on the wastewater treatment containing biorefractory pollutants by electro-Fenton (EF) process. The degradation result by EF technology using CF materials is impressive when most of toxic contaminants are mineralized to non-toxic compounds at the end of the electrolysis. To decrease the cost treatment and upgrade the treatment efficiency, the EF system has been improved by using modified electrodes or new catalyst sources. The CF materials are also investigated to apply in bio-fuel cell-Fenton in which electrons were produced from fuel cell (FC) towards zero-energy depollution. Finally, the sketches about EF pilot open new gates for application of CF materials in industrial areas.