Redox-flow batteries employing oligomeric organic active materials and size-selective microporous polymer membranes
Abstract
Intermittent energy sources, including solar and wind, require scalable, low-cost, multi-hour energy storage solutions to be effectively incorporated into the grid. Redox-flow batteries offer a solution, but suffer from rapid capacity fade and low Coulombic efficiency due to the high permeability of redox-active species across the battery's membrane. Here we show that active-species crossover can be arrested by scaling the membrane's pore size to molecular dimensions and in turn increasing the size of the active material to be above the membrane's pore-size exclusion limit. When oligomeric redox-active organic molecules were paired with microporous polymer membranes, the rate of active-material crossover was either completely blocked or slowed more than 9,000-fold compared to traditional separators at minimal cost to ionic conductivity. In the case of the latter, this corresponds to an absolute rate of ROM crossover of less than 3 μmol cm−2 day−1 (for a 1.0 M concentration gradient), which exceeds performance targets recently set forth by the battery industry. This strategy was generalizable to both high and low-potential ROMs in a variety of electrolytes, highlighting the importance of macromolecular design in implementing next-generation redox-flow batteries.
- Inventors:
- Issue Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1892927
- Patent Number(s):
- 11329304
- Application Number:
- 15/606,961
- Assignee:
- The Regents of the University of California (Oakland, CA); The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois (Urbana, IL)
- Patent Classifications (CPCs):
-
H - ELECTRICITY H01 - BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS H01M - PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSION OF CHEMICAL ENERGY INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY
Y - NEW / CROSS SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES Y02 - TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE Y02E - REDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Patent
- Resource Relation:
- Patent File Date: 05/26/2017
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Citation Formats
Helms, Brett A., Doris, Sean E., Ward, Ashleigh L., Frischmann, Peter D., Chenard, Etienne, Gavvalapalli, Nagarjuna, and Moore, Jeffrey S. Redox-flow batteries employing oligomeric organic active materials and size-selective microporous polymer membranes. United States: N. p., 2022.
Web.
Helms, Brett A., Doris, Sean E., Ward, Ashleigh L., Frischmann, Peter D., Chenard, Etienne, Gavvalapalli, Nagarjuna, & Moore, Jeffrey S. Redox-flow batteries employing oligomeric organic active materials and size-selective microporous polymer membranes. United States.
Helms, Brett A., Doris, Sean E., Ward, Ashleigh L., Frischmann, Peter D., Chenard, Etienne, Gavvalapalli, Nagarjuna, and Moore, Jeffrey S. Tue .
"Redox-flow batteries employing oligomeric organic active materials and size-selective microporous polymer membranes". United States. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1892927.
@article{osti_1892927,
title = {Redox-flow batteries employing oligomeric organic active materials and size-selective microporous polymer membranes},
author = {Helms, Brett A. and Doris, Sean E. and Ward, Ashleigh L. and Frischmann, Peter D. and Chenard, Etienne and Gavvalapalli, Nagarjuna and Moore, Jeffrey S.},
abstractNote = {Intermittent energy sources, including solar and wind, require scalable, low-cost, multi-hour energy storage solutions to be effectively incorporated into the grid. Redox-flow batteries offer a solution, but suffer from rapid capacity fade and low Coulombic efficiency due to the high permeability of redox-active species across the battery's membrane. Here we show that active-species crossover can be arrested by scaling the membrane's pore size to molecular dimensions and in turn increasing the size of the active material to be above the membrane's pore-size exclusion limit. When oligomeric redox-active organic molecules were paired with microporous polymer membranes, the rate of active-material crossover was either completely blocked or slowed more than 9,000-fold compared to traditional separators at minimal cost to ionic conductivity. In the case of the latter, this corresponds to an absolute rate of ROM crossover of less than 3 μmol cm−2 day−1 (for a 1.0 M concentration gradient), which exceeds performance targets recently set forth by the battery industry. This strategy was generalizable to both high and low-potential ROMs in a variety of electrolytes, highlighting the importance of macromolecular design in implementing next-generation redox-flow batteries.},
doi = {},
journal = {},
number = ,
volume = ,
place = {United States},
year = {2022},
month = {5}
}
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