Long-Cycling Aqueous Organic Redox Flow Battery (AORFB) toward Sustainable and Safe Energy Storage

TLDR

Redox flow batteries can store renewable electricity, but conventional systems based on vanadium or Zn‑Br₂ are hindered by scarce, costly metals, expensive separators, crossover, and corrosive electrolytes. This work introduces a neutral aqueous organic RFB that uses a newly designed, highly water‑soluble ferrocene electrolyte to overcome these limitations. The authors synthesized water‑soluble ferrocene derivatives (FcNCl and FcN2Br₂) bearing ammonium and halide groups, paired them with methyl viologen as anolyte, and operated the cells in neutral NaCl with a low‑cost anion‑exchange membrane. The resulting ferrocene/MV AORFBs deliver a theoretical energy density of 45.5 Wh L⁻¹, maintain 99.99 % capacity over 700 cycles at 60 mA cm⁻², achieve 125 mW cm⁻² power density, and are constructed from earth‑abundant, environmentally benign components.

Abstract

Redox flow batteries (RFBs) are a viable technology to store renewable energy in the form of electricity that can be supplied to electricity grids. However, widespread implementation of traditional RFBs, such as vanadium and Zn-Br2 RFBs, is limited due to a number of challenges related to materials, including low abundance and high costs of redox-active metals, expensive separators, active material crossover, and corrosive and hazardous electrolytes. To address these challenges, we demonstrate a neutral aqueous organic redox flow battery (AORFB) technology utilizing a newly designed cathode electrolyte containing a highly water-soluble ferrocene molecule. Specifically, water-soluble (ferrocenylmethyl)trimethylammonium chloride (FcNCl, 4.0 M in H2O, 107.2 Ah/L, and 3.0 M in 2.0 NaCl, 80.4 Ah/L) and N1-ferrocenylmethyl-N1,N1,N2,N2,N2-pentamethylpropane-1,2-diaminium dibromide, (FcN2Br2, 3.1 M in H2O, 83.1 Ah/L, and 2.0 M in 2.0 M NaCl, 53.5 Ah/L) were synthesized through structural decoration of hydrophobic ferrocene with synergetic hydrophilic functionalities including an ammonium cation group and a halide anion. When paired with methyl viologen (MV) as an anolyte, resulting FcNCl/MV and FcN2Br2/MV AORFBs were operated in noncorrosive neutral NaCl supporting electrolytes using a low-cost anion-exchange membrane. These ferrocene/MV AORFBs are characterized as having high theoretical energy density (45.5 Wh/L) and excellent cycling performance from 40 to 100 mA/cm2. Notably, the FcNCl/MV AORFBs (demonstrated at 7.0 and 9.9 Wh/L) exhibited unprecedented long cycling performance, 700 cycles at 60 mA/cm2 with 99.99% capacity retention per cycle, and delivered power density up to 125 mW/cm2. These AORFBs are built from earth-abundant elements and are environmentally benign, thus representing a promising choice for sustainable and safe energy storage.