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Reconstruction of Carbon Papers and Analysis of Structural and Characteristic Parameters Through Lattice Boltzmann Method

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Abstract

Carbon paper is commonly used to fabricate electrodes for batteries, and its morphology is crucial to the internal mass transport. In this work, geometric models of carbon paper are obtained by experimental and numerical reconstruction methods. The micromorphology of the carbon paper is obtained with a scanning electron microscope and an X-ray computed tomography scanner, and the binary slicing method is used in the experimental reconstruction method. Three different methods are used for numerical reconstruction, namely the layered 2D fibre, 3D fibre stacking and layered 3D fibre stacking methods. The structure and characteristic parameters of the carbon paper, such as pore size distribution, dimensionless specific surface area, effective diffusion coefficient and anisotropic coefficient, are statistically analysed for comparison. The dimensionless effective diffusion coefficients of Li+ in different directions in the electrolyte-filled carbon paper are obtained using lattice Boltzmann method. Results show that the internal structural features directly affect mass transport. The curves of the calculated effective diffusivity versus porosity are well fitted using a power function similar to Bruggeman equation within the porosity range of 0.66–0.86. The anisotropic coefficient is obtained from the effective diffusion coefficient in different directions.

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Data Availability

The datasets used or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code Availability

In this work, C# is used to program the code for calculation of pore size distribution, specific surface area and effective diffusion coefficient. The contour figure of diffusion process is displayed by Tecplot software.

Abbreviations

C :

Concentration of Li+ (mol m3)

C 0 :

Initial concentration of Li+ (mol m3)

C in :

Concentration of Li+ inlet (mol m3)

C out :

Concentration of Li+ outlet (mol m3)

D 0 :

Diffusion coefficient of Li+ (m2 s−1)

D eff :

Effective diffusion coefficient of Li+ in the porous medium (m2 s−1)

f :

Anisotropic coefficient

\(g_{i}^{\text{eq}}\) :

Equilibrium distribution function of Li+ diffusion

g i :

Distribution function of Li+ diffusion

α :

Bruggeman index

ε :

Porosity of carbon paper

τ :

Dimensionless relaxation factor

\(\omega_{i}\) :

Weight coefficient in i directions

A :

Layered two-dimensional fibre method

B :

Three-dimensional fibre stacking method

C:

Layered three-dimensional fibre stacking method

EXP:

Experimental reconstruction method

tp:

Through plane direction

ip:

In-plane direction

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51676013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Beijing, 100083, China

    Yanan Gao, Zhi Wen, Xie Deng, Mingze Shi & Xunliang Liu

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  1. Yanan Gao
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  2. Zhi Wen
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  3. Xie Deng
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  4. Mingze Shi
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, C# programming, data collection and analysis were performed by YG, XD and MS. The first draft of the manuscript was written by YG. Review and editing work is performed by YG and XL. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xunliang Liu.

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Gao, Y., Wen, Z., Deng, X. et al. Reconstruction of Carbon Papers and Analysis of Structural and Characteristic Parameters Through Lattice Boltzmann Method. Transp Porous Med 140, 643–666 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-020-01510-0

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