Person:

Gordon, Roy

Redox flow batteries based on quinone-bearing aqueous electrolytes have emerged as promising systems for energy storage from intermittent renewable sources. The lifetime of these batteries is limited by quinone stability. Here, we confirm that 2,6-dihydroxyanthrahydroquinone tends to form an anthrone intermediate that is vulnerable to subsequent irreversible dimerization. We demonstrate quantitatively that this decomposition pathway is responsible for the loss of battery capacity. Computational studies indicate that the driving force for anthrone formation is greater for anthraquinones with lower reduction potentials. We show that the decomposition can be substantially mitigated. We demonstrate that conditions minimizing anthrone formation and avoiding anthrone dimerization slow the capacity loss rate by over an order of magnitude. We anticipate that this mitigation strategy readily extends to other anthraquinone-based flow batteries and is thus an important step toward realizing renewable electricity storage through long-lived organic flow batteries.

The massive-scale integration of renewable electricity into the power grid is impeded by its intrinsic intermittency. The aqueous organic redox flow battery (AORFB) rises as a potential storage solution; however, the choice of positive electrolytes is limited, and the aqueous-soluble organic positive redox-active species reported to date have short lifetimes. Here we report a stable organic molecule for the positive terminal, 4-[3-(trimethylammonio)propoxy]-2,2,6,6- tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TMAP-TEMPO) chloride, exhibiting high (4.62 M) aqueous solubility. When operated in a practical AORFB against a negative electrolyte comprising BTMAP-viologen at neutral pH, the flow cell displayed an open-circuit voltage of 1.1 Volts and a coulombic efficiency of >99.73%. The capacity retention rate is among the highest of all-organic AORFBs reported to date, at 99.993% per cycle over 1000 consecutive cycles; the temporal capacity fade rate of 0.026% per hour is independent of concentration.

Quinone–hydroquinone pairs have been proposed as biologically-inspired, low-cost redox couples for organic electrolytes for electrical energy storage, particularly in aqueous redox flow batteries. In their oxidized form, quinones are electrophiles that can react with the nucleophilic water solvent resulting in loss of active electrolyte. Here we study two mechanisms of nucleophilic addition of water, one reversible and one irreversible, that limit quinone performance in practical flow batteries. Using a combination of density functional theory and semi-empirical calculations, we have quantified the source of the instability of quinones in water, and explored the relationships between chemical structure, electrochemical reduction potential, and decomposition or instability mechanisms. The importance of these mechanisms was further verified through experimental characterization of a family of alizarin-derived quinones. Finally, ∼140 000 prospective quinone pairs (over 1 000 000 calculations including decomposition products) were analyzed in a virtual screening using the learned design principles. Our conclusions suggest that numerous low reduction potential molecules are stable with respect to nucleophilic addition, but promising high reduction potential molecules are much rarer. This latter fact suggests the existence of a stability cliff for this family of quinone-based organic molecules, which challenges the development of all-quinone aqueous redox flow batteries.