An aqueous all-organic redox-flow battery employing a (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yl)oxyl-containing polymer as catholyte and dimethyl viologen dichloride as anolyte

Hagemann, Tino; Winsberg, Jan; Grube, Mandy; Nischang, Ivo; Janoschka, Tobias; Martin, Norbert; Hager, Martin D.; Schubert, Ulrich S.

Abstract:

Herein we present a new redox-flow battery (RFB) that employs a (2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidin-1-yl)oxyl (TEMPO) containing copolymer (P1) as catholyte and the viologen derivative N,N′-dimethyl-4,4′-bipyridinium dichloride (MV) as anolyte in an aqueous sodium chloride solution. This is the first time that a combination of an organic polymer and a low-molar-mass organic redox-active material is presented. The electrochemical behavior of the utilized charge-storage materials were investigated by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and feature reversible redox-reactions at E½ = 0.7 V (TEMPO/TEMPO+) and E½ = −0.6 V vs. AgCl/Ag (MV++/MV+•), which lead to a promising cell voltage of 1.3 V in the subsequent battery application. Studies were performed to determine the most suitable anion-exchange membrane (AEM), the ideal conducting salt concentration and the optimal flow rate. The resulting battery reveals a stable charge/discharge performance over 100 consecutive cycles with coulombic efficiencies of up to 95%, a high energy efficiency of 85% and an overall energy density of the electrolyte system of 3.8 W h L−1.

Research areas:

• Polymer Batteries

Year:

2018

Type of Publication:

Article

Journal:

Journal of Power Sources

Volume:

378

Pages:

546 - 554

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2017.09.007