scholarly journals Progress and directions in low-cost redox-flow batteries for large-scale energy storage

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin Li ◽  
Jun Liu

Abstract Compared to lithium-ion batteries, redox-flow batteries have attracted widespread attention for long-duration, large-scale energy-storage applications. This review focuses on current and future directions to address one of the most significant challenges in energy storage: reducing the cost of redox-flow battery systems. A high priority is developing aqueous systems with low-cost materials and high-solubility redox chemistries. Highly water-soluble inorganic redox couples are important for developing technologies that can provide high energy densities and low-cost storage. There is also great potential to rationally design organic redox molecules and fine-tune their properties for both aqueous and non-aqueous systems. While many new concepts begin to blur the boundary between traditional batteries and redox-flow batteries, breakthroughs in identifying/developing membranes and separators and in controlling side reactions on electrode surfaces also are needed.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jian Luo ◽  
Bo Hu ◽  
Wenda Wu ◽  
Maowei Hu ◽  
Leo Liu

Redox flow batteries (RFBs) have been recognized as a promising option for scalable and dispatchable renewable energy storage (e.g. solar and wind energy). Zinc metal represents a low cost, high capacity anode material to develop high energy density aqueous redox flow batteries. However, the energy storage applications of traditional inorganic Zn halide flow batteries are primarily plagued by the material challenges of traditional halide cathode electrolytes (e.g. bromine) including corrosion, toxicity, and severe crossover. As reported here, we have developed a bipolar Zinc-ferrocene salt compound, Zinc 1,1’-bis(3-sulfonatopropyl)ferrocene, Zn[Fc(SPr)2] (1.80 M solubility or 48.2 Ah/L charge storage capacity) – a robust, energy-dense, bipolar redox-active electrolyte material for high performance Zn organic RFBs. Using a low-cost porous Daramic membrane, the Zn[Fc(SPr)2] aqueous organic redox flow battery (AORFB) has worked in dual-flow and single-flow modes. It has manifested outstanding current, energy, and power performance, specifically, operating at high current densities of up to 200 mA/cm2 and delivering an energy efficiency of up to 81.5% and a power density of up to 270.5 mW/cm2. A Zn[Fc(SPr)2] AORFB demonstrated an energy density of 20.2 Wh/L and displayed 100% capacity retention for 2000 cycles (1284 hr or 53.5 days). The Zn[Fc(SPr)2] ionic bipolar electrolyte not only offers record-setting, highly-stable, energy-dense, and the most powerful Zn-organic AORFBs to date, but it also provides a new paradigm to develop even more advanced redox materials for scalable energy storage.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junting Yu ◽  
Tianshou Zhao ◽  
Ding Pan

<div>Aqueous organic redox flow batteries have many appealing properties in the application of large-scale energy storage. The large chemical tunability of organic electrolytes shows great potential to improve the performance of flow batteries. Computational studies at the quantum-mechanics level are very useful to guide experiments, but in previous studies explicit water interactions and thermodynamic effects were ignored. Here, we applied the computational electrochemistry method based on ab initio molecular dynamics to calculate redox potentials of quinones and their derivatives. The calculated results are in excellent agreement with experimental data. We mixed side chains to tune their reduction potentials, and found that solvation interactions and entropy effects play a significant role in side-chain engineering. Based on our calculations, we proposed several high-performance negative and positive electrolytes. Our first-principles study paves the way towards the development of large-scale and sustainable electrical energy storage.</div>


Author(s):  
Guixiang Wang ◽  
Haitao Zou ◽  
Xiaobo Zhu ◽  
Mei Ding ◽  
Chuankun Jia

Abstract Zinc-based redox flow batteries (ZRFBs) have been considered as ones of the most promising large-scale energy storage technologies owing to their low cost, high safety, and environmental friendliness. However, their commercial application is still hindered by a few key problems. First, the hydrogen evolution and zinc dendrite formation cause poor cycling life, of which needs to ameliorated or overcome by finding suitable anolytes. Second, the stability and energy density of catholytes are unsatisfactory due to oxidation, corrosion, and low electrolyte concentration. Meanwhile, highly catalytic electrode materials remain to be explored and the ion selectivity and cost efficiency of membrane materials demands further improvement. In this review, we summarize different types of ZRFBs according to their electrolyte environments including ZRFBs using neutral, acidic, and alkaline electrolytes, then highlight the advances of key materials including electrode and membrane materials for ZRFBs, and finally discuss the challenges and perspectives for the future development of high-performance ZRFBs.


Author(s):  
Yuxi Song ◽  
Kaiyue Zhang ◽  
Xiangrong Li ◽  
Chuanwei Yan ◽  
Qinghua Liu ◽  
...  

Aqueous all-iron flow battery is a promising alternative for large-scale energy storage applications due to low cost and high safety. However, inferior Fe plating/stripping reversibility and hydrolysis of Fe2+ at...


Author(s):  
Sen Yang ◽  
Ting Li ◽  
Yiwei Tan

Potassium-ion batteries (PIBs) that serve as low-cost and large-scale secondary batteries are regarded as promising alternatives and supplement to lithium-ion batteries. Hybrid active materials can be featured with the synergistic...


Author(s):  
Piergiorgio Alotto ◽  
Massimo Guarnieri ◽  
Federico Moro ◽  
Andrea Stella

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. 5532-5540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guoqiang Tan ◽  
Wurigumula Bao ◽  
Yifei Yuan ◽  
Zhun Liu ◽  
Reza Shahbazian-Yassar ◽  
...  

To transform lithium ion batteries into large-scale energy storage technologies, high energy/power densities and long cycling life of carbon-based anodes must be achieved.


2014 ◽  
Vol 86 (5) ◽  
pp. 633-649 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiongwei Wu ◽  
Junping Hu ◽  
Jun Liu ◽  
Qingming Zhou ◽  
Wenxin Zhou ◽  
...  

Abstract In recent years, much attention has been paid to vanadium redox flow batteries (VRBs) because of their excellent performance as a new and efficient energy storage system, especially for large-scale energy storage. As one core component of a VRB, ion exchange membrane prevents cross-over of positive and negative electrolytes, while it enables the transportation of charge-balancing ions such as H+, $${\text{SO}}_4^{2 - },$$ and $${\text{HSO}}_4^ - $$ to complete the current circuit. To a large extent, its structure and property affect the performance of VRBs. This review focuses on the latest work on the ion exchange membranes for VRBs such as perfluorinated, partially fluorinated, and nonfluorinated membranes. The prospective for future development on membranes for VRBs is also proposed.


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