Vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) has a brilliant future in the field of large energy storage system (EES) due to its characteristics including fast response speed, large energy storage capacity, low cost, high efficiency, long service life and low pollution. Although vanadium redox flow batteries have been widely used in commercial applications, their energy density and efficiency are limited by electrode activity, temperature stability, cross contamination, and voltage loss. This review, which includes the four aspects of electrode, electrolyte, membrane, and bipolar plate on VRFB, mainly illustrates the working principle of VRFB technology, while introducing the different components of VRFB and their latest research status, summarizing the limitations of current VRFBs, and discussing the solutions to these limitations, so as to highlight the development direction of VRFB technology.