{"id":7362,"date":"2014-01-10T15:47:18","date_gmt":"2014-01-10T20:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/?p=7362"},"modified":"2014-01-10T15:48:25","modified_gmt":"2014-01-10T20:48:25","slug":"organic-battery-with-no-metals-harvard-seas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2014\/01\/organic-battery-with-no-metals-harvard-seas.html","title":{"rendered":"Organic battery with no metals –Harvard SEAS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nSolar already provides peak power at peak load, and through distribution\r\nis resilient, and that plus ever-decreasing prices will drive solar\r\ndeployments up exponentially for a decade or so yet.\r\nIf we add an inexpensive metal-free battery,\r\nsolar will take over even faster.\r\nAnd that’s what Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences has just\r\npublished as a discovery.\r\n

\r\nHarvard SEAS PR of 8 January 2014,\r\n\r\nOrganic mega flow battery promises breakthrough for renewable\r\nenergy:\r\nHarvard technology could economically store energy for use when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThe paper reports a metal-free flow battery that relies on the\r\nelectrochemistry of naturally abundant, inexpensive, small organic\r\n(carbon-based) molecules called quinones, which are similar to\r\nmolecules that store energy in plants and animals.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nAnd much less expensive, reported CBC News 9 January 2014,\r\n\r\nOrganic battery hailed as cheap renewable energy solution:\r\nHarvard team uses material similar to molecules in rhubarb to store energy<\/a>,\r\n

\r\n

\r\nAccording to MIT Technology review, a conventional metal-reliant\r\nflow battery costs an estimated $700 per kilowatt-hour of storage\r\ncapacity, whereas the Harvard team’s metal-free technology would\r\nbring those costs down to $27 per kilowatt-hour.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nSince this is basic research, there’s no telling when, if ever,\r\nsuch batteries will be commercially available.\r\nIf they ever are, they will boost the already rocketing solar deployment curve.\r\nBack to the SEAS PR:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nTo back up a commercial wind turbine, a large storage tank would be\r\nneeded, possibly located in a below-grade basement, said co-lead\r\nauthor Michael Marshak, a postdoctoral fellow at SEAS and in the\r\nDepartment of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Or if you had a whole\r\nfield of turbines or large solar farm, you could imagine a few very\r\nlarge storage tanks.\r\n<\/p>\r\n

\r\nThe same technology could also have applications at the consumer\r\nlevel, Marshak said. “Imagine a device the size of a home\r\nheating oil tank sitting in your basement. It would store a day’s\r\nworth of sunshine from the solar panels on the roof of your house,\r\npotentially providing enough to power your household from late\r\nafternoon, through the night, into the next morning, without burning\r\nany fossil fuels.”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nThe organic chemicals used in these batteries are not only much less\r\nexpensive than metals in conventional batteries, also according to\r\n\r\nthe funding agency, ARPA-E<\/a>:\r\n

\r\n

\r\nIf successful, Harvard’s organic flow battery design could hold up\r\nto 10 times more energy by volume compared to other flow batteries.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

\r\nIndeed, small enough to fit in your basement.\r\n

\r\n\r\n<\/a>\r\nThe paper is\r\n\r\nA metal-free organic\u2013inorganic aqueous flow battery<\/a>\r\nby\r\n Brian Huskinson,\r\n Michael P. Marshak,\r\n Changwon Suh,\r\n S\u00fcleyman Er,\r\n Michael R. Gerhardt,\r\n Cooper J. Galvin,\r\n Xudong Chen,\r\n Al\u00e1n Aspuru-Guzik,\r\n Roy G. Gordon,\r\nand\r\n Michael J. Aziz,\r\n Nature\r\n 505,\r\n 195\u2013198\r\n (09 January 2014)\r\n doi:10.1038\/nature12909.\r\n

\r\n

\r\nAs the fraction of electricity generation from intermittent\r\nrenewable sources—such as solar or wind—grows, the\r\nability to store large amounts of electrical energy is of increasing\r\nimportance. Solid-electrode batteries maintain discharge at peak power for\r\nfar too short a time to fully regulate wind or solar power output1<\/a>, 2<\/a><\/sup>. In contrast, flow\r\nbatteries can independently scale the power (electrode area) and\r\nenergy (arbitrarily large storage volume) components of the system by\r\nmaintaining all of the electro-active species in fluid form3<\/a>,\r\n4<\/a>, 5<\/a><\/sup>. Wide-scale utilization of\r\nflow batteries is, however, limited by the abundance\r\nand cost of these materials, particularly those using\r\nredox-active metals and precious-metal electrocatalysts6<\/a>, 7<\/a><\/sup>. Here we describe\r\na class of energy storage materials that exploits the favourable\r\nchemical and electrochemical properties of a family of molecules known\r\nas quinones. The example we demonstrate is a metal-free flow battery\r\nbased on the redox chemistry of 9,10-anthraquinone-2,7-disulphonic acid\r\n(AQDS). AQDS undergoes extremely rapid and reversible two-electron\r\ntwo-proton reduction on a glassy carbon electrode in sulphuric acid. An\r\naqueous flow battery with inexpensive carbon electrodes, combining the\r\nquinone\/hydroquinone couple with the Br2<\/sub>\/Br−<\/sup>\r\nredox couple, yields a peak galvanic power density exceeding 0.6 <\/span><\/span>W <\/span><\/span>cm−2<\/sup> at 1.3 <\/span><\/span>A <\/span><\/span>cm−2<\/sup>. Cycling\r\nof this quinone–bromide flow battery showed >99 per\r\ncent storage capacity retention per cycle. The organic anthraquinone\r\nspecies can be synthesized from inexpensive commodity chemicals8<\/a><\/sup>. This organic approach permits tuning\r\nof important properties such as the reduction potential and solubility by\r\nadding functional groups: for example, we demonstrate that the addition\r\nof two hydroxy groups to AQDS increases the open circuit potential of\r\nthe cell by 11% and we describe a pathway for further increases in\r\ncell voltage. The use of π<\/span>-aromatic\r\nredox-active organic molecules instead of redox-active metals represents\r\na new and promising direction for realizing massive electrical energy\r\nstorage at greatly reduced cost.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

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