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Integrated Saltwater Desalination and Energy Storage through a pH Neutral Aqueous Organic Redox Flow Battery
Author(s) -
Debruler Camden,
Wu Wenda,
Cox Kevin,
Vanness Brice,
Liu T. Leo
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced functional materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.069
H-Index - 322
eISSN - 1616-3028
pISSN - 1616-301X
DOI - 10.1002/adfm.202000385
Subject(s) - flow battery , desalination , energy storage , redox , aqueous solution , seawater , electrolyte , battery (electricity) , ferrocyanide , materials science , chemical engineering , chemistry , inorganic chemistry , membrane , electrode , organic chemistry , biochemistry , power (physics) , physics , oceanography , quantum mechanics , engineering , geology
Here, a pH neutral aqueous organic redox flow battery (AORFB) consisting of three electrolytes channels (i.e., an anolyte channel, a catholyte channel, and a central salt water channel) to achieve integrated energy storage and desalination is reported. Employing a low cost, chemically stable methyl viologen (MV) anolyte, and sodium ferrocyanide catholyte, this desalination AORFB is capable of desalinating simulated seawater (0.56 m NaCl) down to 0.023 m salt concentration at an energy cost of 2.4 W h L −1 of fresh water—competitive with current reverse osmosis technologies. Simultaneously, the cell delivers stored energy at 79.7% efficiency with a cell voltage of 0.85 V. Furthermore, the cell is also capable of higher current operation up to 15 mA cm −2 , providing 4.55 mL of fresh water per hour. Combining energy storage and water desalination into such a bifunctional device offers the opportunity to address two growing global issues from one hardware installation.