A Quinone-Bromide Flow Battery with 1 W/cm<sup>2</sup>Power Density

Chen, Qing; Gerhardt, Michael R.; Hartle, Lauren; Aziz, Michael J.

doi:10.1149/2.0021601jes

Cited by 101 publications

(109 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…4. On each side, a commercial graphite plate with interdigitated flow channels (Fuel Cell Tech, Albuquerque, NM) was used to feed electrolyte to a porous carbon paper electrode at a rate of 100 mL/minute controlled by a MasterFlex (Cole Parmer) diaphragm pump.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been shown that raising the flow rate by a factor of four makes a negligible difference in the polarization curves. 4 The temperature of the cell was approximately 20…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In both acidic and alkaline aqueous media, quinone-based RFBs have achieved power densities comparable to those of vanadium RFBs. [2][3][4] For RFBs utilizing either vanadium ions or newer chemistries, a continuing quest is to raise the power density, as the power-conversion unit constitutes a major portion of the system cost. A broadly applicable and insightful way of evaluating factors limiting RFB power density facilitates this effort.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dissection of the Voltage Losses of an Acidic Quinone Redox Flow Battery

Chen

Gerhardt

Aziz

2017

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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We measure the polarization characteristics of a quinone-bromide redox flow battery with interdigitated flow fields, using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and voltammetry of a full cell and of a half cell against a reference electrode. We find linear polarization behavior at 50% state of charge all the way to the short-circuit current density of 2.5 A/cm 2 . We uniquely identify the polarization area-specific resistance (ASR) of each electrode, the membrane ASR to ionic current, and the electronic contact ASR. We use voltage probes to deduce the electronic current density through each sheet of carbon paper in the quinone-bearing electrode. By interpreting the results using the Newman 1-D porous electrode model, we deduce the volumetric exchange current density of the porous electrode. We uniquely evaluate the power dissipation and identify a correspondence to the contributions to the electrode ASR from the faradaic, electronic, and ionic transport processes. We find that, within the electrode, more power is dissipated in the faradaic process than in the electronic and ionic conduction processes combined, despite the observed linear polarization behavior. We examine the sensitivity of the ASR to the values of the model parameters. The greatest performance improvement is anticipated from increasing the volumetric exchange current density. The intermittency of wind and solar energy is motivating research on cost-effective large-scale electrical energy storage. Redox flow batteries are regarded as promising solutions as they possess many desirable attributes, including independent scaling of power and energy, long cycle life, and excellent safety.1 The most commercially advanced RFB chemistry employs vanadium ions, whose high performance has led to MWh-scale developments. The rarity of vanadium and its variable price, however, is spurring the pursuit of alternative RFB chemistries. Among them, organic molecules such as quinones in aqueous solution are especially promising as they contain only inexpensive, earth-abundant elements and have properties that may be tuned for RFB applications. In both acidic and alkaline aqueous media, quinone-based RFBs have achieved power densities comparable to those of vanadium RFBs. 2-4For RFBs utilizing either vanadium ions or newer chemistries, a continuing quest is to raise the power density, as the power-conversion unit constitutes a major portion of the system cost. A broadly applicable and insightful way of evaluating factors limiting RFB power density facilitates this effort. A commonly-used method is the analysis of cell polarization -a measurement of cell potential vs. current density at fixed state of charge. The classical analysis of RFB polarization curves, inspired by fuel cell research, assigns curve slopes in different overvoltage regions to various performance-limiting factors, i.e. electrode kinetics, Ohmic resistance, and mass transport limitations (Fig. 1a). 5,6 While such polarization dissection has provided some direction to RFB design, the method has diff...

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It has been shown that raising the flow rate by a factor of four makes a negligible difference in the polarization curves. 4 The temperature of the cell was approximately 20…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dissection of the Voltage Losses of an Acidic Quinone Redox Flow Battery

Chen

Gerhardt

Aziz

2017

J. Electrochem. Soc.

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“…For example, a brief calculation for the anthraquinone disulphonate/bromine system yields a price of $27 per kW h for the redox-active organic charge-storage materials used, which is significantly lower than the price of $81 per kW h for vanadium systems. 16 In recent years, several semi-organic, [17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29] metal-free organic/ inorganic 16,30 and all-organic RFBs 7,[11][12][13][31][32][33][34][35] have been reported. Commonly, two different redox-active materials are used as chargestorage materials, one within the catholyte and the other within the anolyte.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A bipolar nitronyl nitroxide small molecule for an all-organic symmetric redox-flow battery

et al. 2017

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An all-organic symmetric redox-flow battery (RFB) that employs nitronyl nitroxide (NN) units as a bipolar redox-active chargestorage material was designed and investigated. An organic molecule possessing two bipolar redox-active NN units connected via a tetraethylene glycol chain was synthesized for this purpose. Owing to the ethylene glycol chain, this molecule demonstrates good solubility in organic solvents. The electrochemical behavior of the obtained compound was investigated via cyclic voltammetry (CV) measurements and it features quasi-reversible redox reactions of the NN + /NN redox couple at E ½ = 0.37 V and the NN/NN − redox couple at E ½ = − 1.25 V versus AgNO 3 /Ag, which led to a promising cell voltage of 1.62 V in a subsequent battery application. A static solution-based battery exhibits a stable charge/discharge performance over 75 consecutive cycles with a high energy efficiency of 82% and an overall energy density of the electrolyte system of 0.67 W h l − 1 . In addition, a pumped RFB test demonstrates an overall energy density of the electrolyte system of 4.1 W h l − 1 and an energy efficiency of 79%.

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“…[13][14] More recently, Aziz et al have also reported a redox flow battery with an anthraquinone-based couple on the negative electrode with the ferro/ferricyanide couple at the positive electrode in alkaline media. 15 Additionally, Aspuru-Guzik et al published computational studies to identify quinone compounds that would be useful in an all-organic redox flow battery.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Performance Aqueous Organic Flow Battery with Quinone-Based Redox Couples at Both Electrodes

Yang

Hoober-Burkhardt

Krishnamoorthy

et al. 2016

J. Electrochem. Soc.

210

265

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We have demonstrated the repeated cycling of a redox flow cell based on water-soluble organic redox couples (ORBAT) at high voltage efficiency, coulombic efficiency and power density. These cells were successfully operated with 4,5-dihydroxybenzene-1,3-disulfonic acid (BQDS) at the positive electrode and anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonic acid (AQDS) at the negative electrode. Reduction of the voltage losses arising from mass transport limitations, and understanding of the chemical transformations of BQDS during charging have led to these improvements in performance. The specific advances reported here include the use of organic redox couples in the free-acid form, improvements to the flow field configuration, and novel high-surface-area graphite-felt electrode structures. We have identified various steps in the chemical and electrochemical transformations of BQDS during the first few cycles. We have also confirmed that the crossover of the reactants through the membrane was not significant. The performance improvements and new understanding presented here will hasten the development of ORBAT as an inexpensive and sustainable solution for large-scale electrical energy storage. With the increasing penetration of solar photovoltaic and windbased electricity generation, the variable and intermittent output of these energy generation systems is a grave concern for stable operation of the electricity grid. To buffer the inevitable surges in electricity supply and demand, large-scale energy storage systems are needed. Such energy storage systems must be capable of storing thousands of giga-watt hours of electricity per day. Rechargeable batteries are particularly attractive for electrical energy storage because of their high energy efficiency and scalability.1-3 However, for such a largescale application, these batteries must be inexpensive, robust, safe, and sustainable. None of today's commercially-available batteries can meet all the performance and cost targets at this scale of deployment of energy storage. This situation has led to a global search for a transformational solution.In 2013, we described an organic redox flow battery -also known as ORBAT -that uses water-soluble organic redox couples as a safe, scalable, and efficient energy storage system with the potential to meet the United States Department of Energy (DoE) cost target of $100/kWh for large-scale energy storage. 4 In such a battery, aqueous solutions of two different water-soluble organic redox couples -quinones and anthraquinones or their derivatives -were circulated past carbon electrodes in an electrochemical cell. In our current system, the positive electrode is supplied with a solution of 4,5-dihydroxybenzene-1,3-disulfonic acid (BQDS) and the negative electrode uses a solution of anthraquinone-2,6-disulfonic acid (AQDS). The positive and negative electrode compartments are separated by a proton-conducting polymer electrolyte membrane (Figure 1). During charge and discharge, the redox couples undergo rapid proton-coupled electron transfer to store ...

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A Quinone-Bromide Flow Battery with 1 W/cm²Power Density

Cited by 101 publications

References 14 publications

Dissection of the Voltage Losses of an Acidic Quinone Redox Flow Battery

Dissection of the Voltage Losses of an Acidic Quinone Redox Flow Battery

A bipolar nitronyl nitroxide small molecule for an all-organic symmetric redox-flow battery

High-Performance Aqueous Organic Flow Battery with Quinone-Based Redox Couples at Both Electrodes

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A Quinone-Bromide Flow Battery with 1 W/cm2Power Density

Cited by 101 publications

References 14 publications

Dissection of the Voltage Losses of an Acidic Quinone Redox Flow Battery

Dissection of the Voltage Losses of an Acidic Quinone Redox Flow Battery

A bipolar nitronyl nitroxide small molecule for an all-organic symmetric redox-flow battery

High-Performance Aqueous Organic Flow Battery with Quinone-Based Redox Couples at Both Electrodes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About

A Quinone-Bromide Flow Battery with 1 W/cm²Power Density