Iron-chromium redox flow batteries (ICRFBs) are among the most cost-effective large-scale energy storage systems owing to their low price, flexible design, and long service life. To further enhance the electrochemical performance and reduce the raw material cost of advanced graphite felt electrodes. Common commercial graphite felt (GF) was used as the basic electrode material, and inexpensive and reliable biomass materials (rice straw, wood chips, and corncobs) were used as raw materials for carbon-based catalysts. Advanced electrodes were fabricated from biomass carbon materials of rice straw, wood chips, and corncobs through pretreatment, sintering, and pyrolysis. Notably, the advanced graphite felt electrode prepared from corncobs biomass carbon material (YM-TGF) has a larger specific surface area, abundant active functional groups, and a faster charge transfer rate. When the current density was 60 mA/cm2, the ICRFB assembled with the advanced electrode activated by YM-TGF achieved a charging capacity of 24.78 Ah/L, and the capacity decay rate was only 0.08% per cycle after 500 charge-discharge cycles.
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