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Material design and engineering of next-generation flow-battery technologies

Nature Reviews Materials volume 2, Article number: 16080 (2017) Cite this article

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Abstract

Spatial separation of the electrolyte and electrode is the main characteristic of flow-battery technologies, which liberates them from the constraints of overall energy content and the energy/power ratio. The concept of a flowing electrolyte not only presents a cost-effective approach for large-scale energy storage, but has also recently been used to develop a wide range of new hybrid energy storage and conversion systems. The advent of flow-based lithium-ion, organic redox-active materials, metal–air cells and photoelectrochemical batteries promises new opportunities for advanced electrical energy-storage technologies. In this Review, we present a critical overview of recent progress in conventional aqueous redox-flow batteries and next-generation flow batteries, highlighting the latest innovative alternative materials. We outline their technical feasibility for use in long-term and large-scale electrical energy-storage devices, as well as the limitations that need to be overcome, providing our view of promising future research directions in the field of redox-flow batteries.

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Figure 1: Timeline of key developments in the area of flow-battery systems.
Figure 2: Strategies to increase the catalytic activity of electrodes and porous membranes in VRFBs.
Figure 3: Lithium-based flow batteries.
Figure 4: All-organic redox-flow batteries.
Figure 5: Metal–air flow batteries.
Figure 6: Solar rechargeable flow batteries.
Figure 7: Requirements and considerations for the development of flow batteries.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the 2016 Research Fund (1.160033.01) of Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST). W.W. acknowledges the financial support from the US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) under Contract No.57558 and US DOE Office of Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) through Award DE-AR0000686. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is operated by Battelle for the DOE under Contract DE-AC05-76RL01830.

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  1. Department of Energy Engineering, School of Energy and Chemical Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), 50 UNIST-gil, Ulsan, 44919, Republic of Korea

    Minjoon Park, Jaechan Ryu & Jaephil Cho

  2. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, 902 Battelle Boulevard, Richland, 99354, Washington, USA

    Wei Wang

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  1. Minjoon Park
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Correspondence to Wei Wang or Jaephil Cho.

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Park, M., Ryu, J., Wang, W. et al. Material design and engineering of next-generation flow-battery technologies. Nat Rev Mater 2, 16080 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/natrevmats.2016.80

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