Abstract
We present the first alkaline redox flow battery (a-RFB) based on the coordination chemistry of cobalt with 1-[Bis(2-hydroxyethyl)amino]-2-propanol (mTEA) and iron with triethanolamine (TEA) in 5 M NaOH. The overall redox system has a cell voltage of 0.93 V in the charged state. Importantly, the coordination compounds are negatively charged and have limited transport through the cation exchange membrane (e.g., Nafion), minimizing the extent of redox species crossover during charge-discharge cycling. Fe-TEA is electrochemically reversible and soluble up to 0.8 M, whereas Co-mTEA presents quasireversible electron transfer kinetics and can be solubilized up to 0.7 M. Cyclability was tested with a flow cell at a concentration 0.5 M up to 30 cycles using a 50 μm thick Nafion membrane, at 30 mA/cm2, with minimal crossover (less than 4% of net concentration) or evolution of gases detected.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | A378-A383 |
Journal | Journal of the Electrochemical Society |
Volume | 162 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2015 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials
- Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
- Surfaces, Coatings and Films
- Electrochemistry
- Materials Chemistry