Organic mega flow battery holds promise – surpassing lifetime, voltage thresholds
Date:Jul 26, 2018
An organic molecule, that outlives and outperforms other organic flow batteries, has been developed by Harvard researchers.
Nicknamed the ‘Methuselah quinone’ – after the longest-lived Biblical figure – the researchers believe this molecule could usefully store and release energy many tens of thousands of times over multi-year periods.
“We designed and built a new organic compound that can store electrical energy and also has a very long life before it decomposes,” claims Professor Roy Gordon of Harvard. “We discovered degradation processes of the molecules that we previously used in flow batteries. Then we created new, more stable molecules that avoid these problems.”
“In previous work, we had demonstrated a chemistry with a long lifespan but low voltage, which leads to low energy storage per molecule, which leads to high cost for a given amount of energy stored,” adds Michael Aziz of Harvard. “Now, we have the first chemistry that has both long-term stability and comes in at more than one volt, which is commonly considered the threshold for commercial deployment. I believe it is the first organic-based flow battery that meets all of the technical criteria for practical implementation.”