Reversible ketone hydrogenation and dehydrogenation for aqueous organic redox flow batteries

Science ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 372 (6544) ◽  
pp. 836-840
Author(s):  
Ruozhu Feng ◽  
Xin Zhang ◽  
Vijayakumar Murugesan ◽  
Aaron Hollas ◽  
Ying Chen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Molecular Engineering ◽  
Environmentally Benign ◽  
Active Materials ◽  
Redox Flow Batteries ◽  
Flow Batteries ◽  
Ketone Hydrogenation ◽  
Electro Oxidation ◽  
Alcohol Conversion

Aqueous redox flow batteries with organic active materials offer an environmentally benign, tunable, and safe route to large-scale energy storage. Development has been limited to a small palette of organics that are aqueous soluble and tend to display the necessary redox reversibility within the water stability window. We show how molecular engineering of fluorenone enables the alcohol electro-oxidation needed for reversible ketone hydrogenation and dehydrogenation at room temperature without the use of a catalyst. Flow batteries based on these fluorenone derivative anolytes operate efficiently and exhibit stable long-term cycling at ambient and mildly increased temperatures in a nondemanding environment. These results expand the palette to include reversible ketone to alcohol conversion but also suggest the potential for identifying other atypical organic redox couple candidates.

A subtractive approach to molecular engineering of dimethoxybenzene-based redox materials for non-aqueous flow batteries

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (29) ◽  
pp. 14971-14976 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinhua Huang ◽  
Liang Su ◽  
Jeffrey A. Kowalski ◽  
John L. Barton ◽  
Magali Ferrandon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Capacity ◽  
Molecular Engineering ◽  
Active Materials ◽  
Redox Flow Batteries ◽  
Redox Active ◽  
Flow Batteries ◽  
Aqueous Flow

The development of new high capacity redox active materials is key to realizing the potential of non-aqueous redox flow batteries (RFBs).

Molecular engineering of organic electroactive materials for redox flow batteries

2018 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Ding ◽  
Changkun Zhang ◽  
Leyuan Zhang ◽  
Yangen Zhou ◽  
Guihua Yu
Keyword(s):  
Energy Storage ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Storage System ◽  
Energy Storage System ◽  
Molecular Engineering ◽  
Electroactive Materials ◽  
Redox Flow Batteries ◽  
System P ◽  
Flow Batteries ◽  
High Scalability

With high scalability and independent control over energy and power, redox flow batteries (RFBs) stand out as an important large-scale energy storage system.

scholarly journals Vanadium Redox Flow Batteries: A Review Oriented to Fluid-Dynamic Optimization

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 176
Author(s):  
Iñigo Aramendia ◽  
Unai Fernandez-Gamiz ◽  
Adrian Martinez-San-Vicente ◽  
Ekaitz Zulueta ◽  
Jose Manuel Lopez-Guede
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Numerical Models ◽  
Fluid Dynamic ◽  
Renewable Energy Sources ◽  
Vanadium Redox Flow Battery ◽  
Redox Flow Batteries ◽  
Design Flexibility ◽  
Flow Batteries ◽  
Exchange Membrane ◽  
Vanadium Redox

Large-scale energy storage systems (ESS) are nowadays growing in popularity due to the increase in the energy production by renewable energy sources, which in general have a random intermittent nature. Currently, several redox flow batteries have been presented as an alternative of the classical ESS; the scalability, design flexibility and long life cycle of the vanadium redox flow battery (VRFB) have made it to stand out. In a VRFB cell, which consists of two electrodes and an ion exchange membrane, the electrolyte flows through the electrodes where the electrochemical reactions take place. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are a very powerful tool to develop feasible numerical models to enhance the performance and lifetime of VRFBs. This review aims to present and discuss the numerical models developed in this field and, particularly, to analyze different types of flow fields and patterns that can be found in the literature. The numerical studies presented in this review are a helpful tool to evaluate several key parameters important to optimize the energy systems based on redox flow technologies.

scholarly journals Tuning the Performance of Aqueous Organic Redox Flow Batteries from First Principles

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junting Yu ◽  
Tianshou Zhao ◽  
Ding Pan
Keyword(s):  
Energy Storage ◽  
First Principles ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Ab Initio Molecular Dynamics ◽  
Redox Potentials ◽  
Redox Flow Batteries ◽  
Flow Batteries ◽  
Entropy Effects

<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>

Recent progress in zinc-based redox flow batteries: a review

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guixiang Wang ◽  
Haitao Zou ◽  
Xiaobo Zhu ◽  
Mei Ding ◽  
Chuankun Jia
Keyword(s):  
High Performance ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Electrode Materials ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Ion Selectivity ◽  
Commercial Application ◽  
Environmental Friendliness ◽  
Membrane Materials ◽  
Redox Flow Batteries ◽  
Flow Batteries

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.

Laboratory XANES to study vanadium species in vanadium redox flow batteries

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (S1) ◽  
pp. S24-S28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Lutz ◽  
Ursula Elisabeth Adriane Fittschen
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Polymer Electrolyte Membranes ◽  
Measurement Time ◽  
Edge Structure ◽  
Redox Flow Batteries ◽  
Flow Batteries ◽  
Electrolyte Membranes ◽  
X Ray Absorption ◽  
Vanadium Redox ◽  
Vanadium Species

The speciation of vanadium in the electrolyte of vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) is important to determine the state of charge of the battery. To obtain a better understanding of the transport of the different vanadium species through the separator polymer electrolyte membranes, it is necessary to be able to determine concentration and species of the vanadium ions inside the nanoscopic water body of the membranes. The speciation of V in the electrolyte of VRFBs has been performed by others at the synchrotron by X-ray absorption near-edge structure analysis (XANES). However, the concentrations are quite high and not necessarily justify the use of a large-scale facility. Here, we show that vanadium species in the electrolyte and inside the ionomeric membranes can be determined by laboratory XANES. We were able to determine V species in the 1.6 M electrolyte with a measurement time of 2.3 h and V species having a concentration of 9.8 g kg−1 inside the membranes (178 µm thick) with a measurement time of 5 h. Our results show that laboratory XANES is an appropriate tool to study these kind of samples.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document