Abstract
Redox flow batteries have the potential to revolutionize our use of intermittent sustainable energy sources such as solar and wind power by storing the energy in liquid electrolytes. Our concept study utilizes a novel electrolyte system, exploiting derivatized fullerenes as both anolyte and catholyte species in a series of battery cells, including a symmetric, single species system which alleviates the common problem of membrane crossover. The prototype multielectron system, utilizing molecular based charge carriers, made from inexpensive, abundant, and sustainable materials, principally, C and Fe, demonstrates remarkable current and energy densities and promising long-term cycling stability.
Highlights
Redox flow batteries (RFBs) represent an exciting opportunity to tackle the problem of energy storage, offering the potential of large scale, affordable, and safe systems
To release the stored energy the system is discharged by flowing species back into the cell to react at the electrodes. The efficiency of this process depends on several factors including the following: the concentration of reactive species in the solutions, the formal potential of the redox couples, the kinetics of the electrochemical processes, and the stability of the active species
Fullerene derivatives decorated with suitable electron-donating groups can form a species with at least three oxidation states which are separated by more than 1 V, so that one molecule can serve as both anolyte and catholyte and crossover does not chemically contaminate the electrolytes
Summary
Redox flow batteries (RFBs) represent an exciting opportunity to tackle the problem of energy storage, offering the potential of large scale, affordable, and safe systems. To release the stored energy the system is discharged by flowing species back into the cell to react at the electrodes The efficiency of this process depends on several factors including the following: the concentration of reactive species in the solutions, the formal potential of the redox couples, the kinetics of the electrochemical processes, and the stability of the active species. For recent reviews on chemistries for RFBs, see refs 11−13 While these systems propose avenues to reach the Advanced Projects Research Agency-Energy (ARPA-e) defined goal of $100 kW h−1, none of the reported systems are able to emulate the biggest advantage of the VRB: Usage of an electrolyte with a single redox active molecule which remedies irreversible capacity loss due to crossover through the membrane. Fullerene derivatives decorated with suitable electron-donating groups can form a species with at least three oxidation states which are separated by more than 1 V, so that one molecule can serve as both anolyte and catholyte and crossover does not chemically contaminate the electrolytes (see Figure 1)
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