New all-iron redox flow battery for renewables storage
Researchers at the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences of the University of Southern California (USC) have demonstrated a new all-iron redox flow battery for renewable energy storage they claim is inexpensive, safe and eco-friendly as well as offering a long lifetime.
Presented in the study Improvements to the Coulombic Efficiency of the Iron Electrode for an All-Iron Redox-Flow Battery, published in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society, the device is said to have demonstrated coulombic efficiency – the ratio of charge extracted against charge put in over a cycle – of 97.9%, thanks to functional electrolyte additives, pH and elevated temperature.
The researchers say that level of efficiency is among the best recorded for charge and discharge of an iron electrode. “The coulombic efficiency during electrodeposition of iron was found to improve with increasing pH at all values of current density,” stated the USC group. “We have found that ascorbic acid has an important role in determining the coulombic efficiency.”
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