With solar and wind energy revolutionizing prices in recent years, energy storage has become a big problem. People need a large, cheap and durable battery that provides electricity after the sunset, after the wind stops. Recently published in Joule According to a paper in the journal, researchers at Harvard University use an organic 'longevity' molecule to make a flow battery that stores energy for the entire city. The battery solves the cost of a full vanadium flow battery. The problem has broken through the life bottleneck of organic liquid flow batteries.
The so-called flow battery, like the lithium battery in a mobile phone, consists of an electrode pair that converts energy stored in the electrolyte into electrical energy, and an electrolyte that transfers charge from one electrode to the other. However, the conventional battery will have an electrode pair. Packaged with the electrolyte, the flow battery separates the positive and negative electrodes, and the electrolyte circulates.
These electrolytes are stored in an external container of any size and pumped into the electrode during use. Therefore, the charging capacity of the flow battery can be increased to the megawatt level.
The all-vanadium flow battery is now a mainstream flow battery, which is safer, cheaper and more durable than lithium-ion batteries. However, vanadium metal particles serving as electrolytes are relatively expensive, and chemists have been trying to use a class called '醌' Organic compounds as a substitute.
The use of such organic materials to make electrolytes is only one-third the cost of all vanadium redox flow batteries, but they are very fast after repeated charge and discharge, and cannot meet the requirements of the industry. This is the main commercialization of organic liquid flow batteries. the reason.
A new 'longevity' organic fluid battery invented by Harvard University scientists
As a result, Michael Aziz, a materials scientist at Harvard University, and his team set out to improve the lifespan of cockroaches. They found that adding two carboxylic acid groups to the original hydrazine is more soluble in alkaline solutions. In this way, they can use a solution with lower pH and lower chemical strength to reduce electrolyte loss.
The annual loss rate of the flow battery using the new type of helium has dropped to about 3%, and the previous helium flow battery has lost so much in one day. The Aziz team has given this new type a name called 'Masalah'. The Mazalah is a long-lived patriarch mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible and lived 969 years old.
The Aziz team has not yet studied the mass production cost of 'Massala', and if it is similar to the traditional one, the organic flow battery meets the commercial requirements.
'They are very good at designing this,' commented Utah State University chemist Liu Tianyi, who is also studying the flow battery. However, he pointed out that the flow battery must use two different electrolytes, the Aziz team only solves One of the problems of electrolyte loss, the loss of another electrolyte is still to be overcome.
If the academic community can finally 'double-pronged' to overcome the life problem, a large number of organic liquid flow batteries will play an important role in energy storage and peak shaving, and truly enable the world to achieve sustainable energy transformation.