Premium
A Single‐Flow Battery with Multiphase Flow
Author(s) -
Amit Lihi,
Naar Danny,
Gloukhovski Robert,
O' Gerardo Jose,
Suss Matthew E.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
chemsuschem
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.412
H-Index - 157
eISSN - 1864-564X
pISSN - 1864-5631
DOI - 10.1002/cssc.202002135
Subject(s) - flow battery , anode , cathode , plating (geology) , energy storage , materials science , flow (mathematics) , chemical engineering , battery (electricity) , volumetric flow rate , aqueous solution , faraday efficiency , chemistry , electrode , mechanics , thermodynamics , electrolyte , organic chemistry , power (physics) , physics , engineering , geophysics , geology
Widespread adoption of redox flow batteries (RFBs) for renewable energy storage is inhibited by a relatively high cost of storage. This is due largely to typical RFBs requiring two flows, two external tanks, and expensive ion‐exchange membranes. Here, we propose a potentially inexpensive Zn‐Br 2 RFB which is membraneless and requires only a single flow. The flow is an emulsion consisting of a continuous, Br 2 ‐poor aqueous phase and a dispersed, Br 2 ‐rich polybromide phase, pumped through the channel separating anode and cathode. With our prototype cell, we explore the effect of polybromide‐phase volume fraction and Br 2 concentration on cell performance and plating efficiencies. We demonstrate high discharge currents of up to 270 mA/cm 2 , plating efficiencies up to 88 %, and dendriteless plating up to the highest Zn loading investigated of 250 mAh/cm 2 . We provide mechanistic insights into cell behavior and elucidate paths towards unlocking ultra‐low‐cost single‐flow RFBs with multiphase flow.