Membrane‐Free Zn/MnO2 Flow Battery for Large‐Scale Energy Storage. Issue 9 (31st January 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Li, Guodong; Chen, Wei; Zhang, Hao; Gong, Yongji; Shi, Feifei; Wang, Jiangyan; Zhang, Rufan; Chen, Guangxu; Jin, Yang; Wu, Tong; Tang, Zhiyong; Cui, Yi
• Is Part Of: Advanced energy materials. Volume 10:Issue 9(2020)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2020-01-31
• Subjects: aqueous flow batteries -- dissolution–precipitation reactions -- large‐scale energy storage -- Mn2+/MnO2 transformation -- rechargeable Zn/MnO2; Energy harvesting -- Materials -- Periodicals; Energy conversion -- Materials -- Periodicals; Energy storage -- Materials -- Periodicals; Photovoltaics -- Periodicals; Fuel cells -- Periodicals; Thermoelectric materials -- Periodicals; 621.31
• DOI: 10.1002/aenm.201902085
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1614-6832

Abstract

Abstract: The traditional Zn/MnO2 battery has attracted great interest due to its low cost, high safety, high output voltage, and environmental friendliness. However, it remains a big challenge to achieve long‐term stability, mainly owing to the poor reversibility of the cathode reaction. Different from previous studies where the cathode redox reaction of MnO2 /MnOOH is in solid state with limited reversibility, here a new aqueous rechargeable Zn/MnO2 flow battery is constructed with dissolution–precipitation reactions in both cathodes (Mn 2+ /MnO2 ) and anodes (Zn 2+ /Zn), which allow mixing of anolyte and catholyte into only one electrolyte and remove the requirement for an ion selective membrane for cost reduction. Impressively, this new battery exhibits a high discharge voltage of ≈1.78 V, good rate capability (10C discharge), and excellent cycling stability (1000 cycles without decay) at the areal capacity ranging from 0.5 to 2 mAh cm ‐2 . More importantly, this battery can be readily enlarged to a bench scale flow cell of 1.2 Ah with good capacity retention of 89.7% at the 500th cycle, displaying great potential for large‐scale energy storage. Abstract : A new aqueous rechargeable Zn/MnO2 flow battery is constructed by dissolution–precipitation reactions in both cathodes (Mn 2+ /MnO2 ) and anodes (Zn 2+ /Zn) that allow mixing of anolyte and catholyte into only one electrolyte and remove the requirement for an ion selective membrane for cost reduction. The scale up on absolute energy output is shown by a bench scale cell of 1.2 Ah with good capacity retention over 500 cycles.