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REDOX FLOW BATTERIES

Iron flies higher

Nature Energy volume 6, pages 854–855 (2021)Cite this article

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Electrolyte materials that consist of metals with organic ligands represent a promising direction for flow battery research. Now, an iron complex with the combination of bipyridine and cyanide ligands is demonstrated to have improved voltage and solubility over the commonly used ferrocyanide couple.

Flow batteries offer a compelling framework for long-duration energy storage applications because their power and energy components can be scaled independently. Although systems that use vanadium as the active material in the electrolyte have reached commercial deployment, the cost and scalability of vanadium has hindered substantial development. Thus, an expansive search for new low-cost and scalable electrolyte chemistries has driven research in this area1.

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Fig. 1: An improved catholyte.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Institute and Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA

    Michael P. Marshak

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  1. Michael P. Marshak
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Correspondence to Michael P. Marshak.

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Competing interests

Michael Marshak is the founder of OTORO Energy Inc., which seeks to commercialize metal–organic flow battery chemistries.

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Marshak, M.P. Iron flies higher. Nat Energy 6, 854–855 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-021-00882-x

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