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Stable Organic Redox Flow Batteries in Nonaqueous Electrolytes

Tuesday, 30 May 2017
Grand Ballroom (Hilton New Orleans Riverside)
X. Wei (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Joint Center for Energy Storage Research), L. Zhang (Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR)), W. Duan (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Joint Center for Energy Storage Research), D. Hu (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory), Z. Yang (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Joint Center for Energy Storage Research), M. Vijayakumar, J. Liu, W. Wang (Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR)), V. Sprenkle (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory), and K. T. Mueller (Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)
Redox flow battery is a promising stationary energy storage technology, which is ascribed to the separation of energy and power leading to excellent design flexibility and scalability. To overcome the limitation of narrow electrochemical window of traditional aqueous flow batteries, considerable attention has been paid to develop nonaqueous flow systems with the hope to increase the energy density. However, the reported nonaqueous flow batteries are limited by low energy density, low rate performance, and more critically, poor cyclability.

Here we report our efforts to explore the mechanisms of capacity fading and to improve the cycling stability of nonaqueous flow batteries based on organic redox-active materials.1-3 Promising organic redox candidates have been identified and structurally tailored to increase their solubilities, redox activities, and chemical stability. A rational molecular design protocol has been proposed and validated for developing stable organic flow batteries. Electrolyte engineering is also found to play a role in tuning the electrochemical performance and stability of nonaqueous flow batteries.

References

(1) X. Wei, W. Xu, J. Huang, L. Zhang, E. Walter, C. Lawrence, M. Vijayakumar, W. A. Henderson, T. Liu, L. Cosimbescu, B. Li, V. Sprenkle, W. Wang, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2015, 54, 8684.

(2) X. Wei,* W. Duan, J. Huang, L. Zhang, B. Li, D. Reed, V. Sprenkle, W. Xu, W. Wang, ACS Energy Lett. 2016, 1, 705.

(3) W. Duan, R. S. Vemuri, J. D. Milshtein, S. Laramie, R. D. Dmello, J. Huang, L. Zhang, D. Hu, M. Vijayakumar, W. Wang, J. Liu, R. M. Darling, L. Thompson, K. Smith, J. S. Moore, F. R. Brushett, X. Wei, J. Mater. Chem. A, 2016, 4, 5448.

Figure 1. The cycling performance of a nonaqueous organic flow battery, showing excellent cycling stability for 50 cycles. The organic redox-active materials are shown.2