We have fabricated N, O dual-doped carbon felt electrode for
all-vanadium redox flow battery by plasma treatment strategy
for the first time. Oxygen and nitrogen co-doped carbon felts
show better battery performance than the pristine undoped
carbon felt, and even single-atom doped carbon felt (O-CF and
N-CF). N, O doping can introduce a large number of functional
groups such as C]O, pyridine-N, which can increase active
sites of vanadium ion reaction and the conductivity of the
material. As a result, the VRFB with the CF treated by oxygen
and nitrogen plasma exhibits the best electrochemical activity
for V(IV)/V(V) redox reaction. O-N-CF materials have good
stability in VRFB. Therefore, the as-developed co-doping
strategy could efficiently tune the surface properties of carbon
electrodes and thus significantly enhance the battery performance
of the redox flow batteries