Chai Jingchao, Wang Xiao, Lashgari Amir, Williams Caroline K, Jiang Jianbing Jimmy
Department of Chemistry, University of Cincinnati, P.O. Box 210172, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45221-0172, USA.
ChemSusChem. 2020 Aug 21;13(16):4069-4077. doi: 10.1002/cssc.202001286. Epub 2020 Jul 29.
Redox-flow batteries (RFBs) are a highly promising large-scale energy storage technology for mitigating the intermittent nature of renewable energy sources. Here, the design and implementation of a micellization strategy in an anthraquinone-based, pH-neutral, nontoxic, and metal-free aqueous RFB is reported. The micellization strategy (1) improves stability by protecting the redox-active anthraquinone core with a hydrophilic poly(ethylene glycol) shell and (2) increases the overall size to mitigate the crossover issue through a physical blocking mechanism. Paired with a well-established potassium ferrocyanide catholyte, the micelle-based RFB displayed an excellent capacity retention of 90.7 % after 3600 charge/discharge cycles (28.3 days), corresponding to a capacity retention of 99.67 % per day and 99.998 % per cycle. The mechanistic studies of redox-active materials were also conducted and indicated the absence of side reactions commonly observed in other anthraquinone-based RFBs. The outstanding performance of the RFB demonstrates the effectiveness of the micellization strategy for enhancing the performance of organic material-based aqueous RFBs.
氧化还原液流电池（RFBs）是一种极具前景的大规模储能技术，可缓解可再生能源的间歇性问题。在此，我们报道了一种基于蒽醌的、pH中性、无毒且无金属的水系RFB中胶束化策略的设计与实施。该胶束化策略：（1）通过用亲水性聚乙二醇外壳保护氧化还原活性蒽醌核心来提高稳定性；（2）通过物理阻挡机制增大整体尺寸以减轻交叉问题。与成熟的亚铁氰化钾阴极电解液配对使用时，基于胶束的RFB在3600次充/放电循环（28.3天）后显示出90.7%的优异容量保持率，相当于每天容量保持率为99.67%，每循环容量保持率为99.998%。还对氧化还原活性材料进行了机理研究，结果表明不存在其他基于蒽醌的RFB中常见的副反应。RFB的出色性能证明了胶束化策略在提高基于有机材料的水系RFB性能方面的有效性。
