Researchers at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio (pictured) are exploring the development of new battery materials for so-called ‘flow batteries’, which differ from from conventional lithium-ion batteries in that energy capacity is determined by the size of external tanks that store liquid electrolytes.
According to a new study, Structured electrolytes facilitate Grotthuss-type transport for enhanced proton-coupled electron transfer reactions, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, a new electrolyte for flow batteries has been developed that is less volatile than previous iterations, enabling a new form of conductivity.
These electrolytes facilitate new opportunities for battery design and open more possibilities for developing safe large-scale energy storage technologies, the university’s Breakthrough Electrolytes for Energy Storage Systems Energy Frontier Research Center (BEES2 EFRC) said.
Grid-scale applications
Flow batteries, they note, could be suitable for grid-scale applications where long-term storage is required, associated with wind or solar farms, or as backup for data centres.
“We have accepted the fact that these fluids need to be thick for safety reasons,” commented lead researcher Burcu Gurkan, Kent Smith Professor II of chemical and biochemical engineering at the Case School of Engineering and director of the BEES2 EFRC. “But instead of forcing large charged particles to push through that thick fluid, we’re letting tiny hydrogen ions hop from molecule to molecule to make their way to the electrode.”
The research involved collaborators from New York University, City University of New York, University of Tennessee, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Sheffield, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. It was supported by the US Department of Energy.
Work in progress
While the electrolyte research builds on a 50-year legacy of electrochemistry and electrochemical engineering at BEES2 EFRC, Gurkan added that it is still under development.
“It’s not at the stage where we can just march with this idea and make the flow battery,” she said. “This doesn’t yet have the chemical solubility we need for the density of energy storage we want. That’s one of the next challenges we need to solve.”
Co-author Robert Savinell, professor of engineering and founding director of the earlier BEES Energy Frontier Research Center, added that the conductivity characterised by the electrolyte in question is less sensitive to viscosity.
“It allows protons to conduct easily while the fluid remains non-volatile and safe,” he added. Read more here.
