Lithium-ion flow battery

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A lithium-ion flow battery is a flow battery that uses a form of lightweight lithium as its charge carrier. [1] The flow battery stores energy separately from its system for discharging. The amount of energy it can store is determined by tank size; its power density is determined by the size of the reaction chamber.

Contents

Dissolving a material changes its chemical behavior significantly. Some flow batteries suspend grains of solid material in a liquid, which preserves its characteristics, making lithium's high energy density available to flow systems.

Lithium polysulfide

One device uses dissolved sulfur as the cathode, lithium metal as the anode and an organic solvent as the electrolyte. [2] Officially "membraneless", it uses a coating to separate anode from cathode. It uses a single tank and pump and reacts the LiS with lithium to produce power. The device operated for more than 2000 cycles without substantial degradation. [1] [3]

When discharging, the lithium polysulfide absorbs lithium ions; releasing them when charging. [1] The demonstration device yielded energy density of 97 Wh/kg and 108 Wh/L with a 5M Li
2
S
8
catholyte. [2]

LiFePO4

Reversible delithiation/lithiation of LiFePO
4
was successfully demonstrated using ferrocene derivatives. This device keeps the energy storage materials stored in separate tanks. The liquids remain stationary during operation. The device incorporated a lithium-ion permeable membrane. [4]

Lithium iodine

A cathode-flow lithium-iodine (Li–I) battery uses the triiodide/iodide (I
3
/I) redox couple in aqueous solution. It has energy density of 0.33 kWh/kg because of the solubility of LiI in aqueous solution (≈8.2M) and its power density of 130 mW/cm2 at a current rate of 60 mA/cm2, 328 K. In operation, the battery attains 90% of the theoretical storage capacity, coulombic efficiency of 100%±1% in 2–20 cycles, and cyclic performance of >99% capacity retention for 20 cycles, up to total capacity of 100 mAh. [5]

LiTi2(PO4)3–LiFePO4

A semi-solid cell based on the LiTi
2
(PO
4
)
3
–LiFePO
4
couple utilizes fluid electrodes that are electronically conductive. Simultaneous advection and electrochemical transport separates flow-induced losses from those due to underlying side reactions. Plug flow is used to achieve energy efficiency with non-Newtonian flow electrodes.[ citation needed ]

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rechargeable battery</span> Type of electrical battery

A rechargeable battery, storage battery, or secondary cell, is a type of electrical battery which can be charged, discharged into a load, and recharged many times, as opposed to a disposable or primary battery, which is supplied fully charged and discarded after use. It is composed of one or more electrochemical cells. The term "accumulator" is used as it accumulates and stores energy through a reversible electrochemical reaction. Rechargeable batteries are produced in many different shapes and sizes, ranging from button cells to megawatt systems connected to stabilize an electrical distribution network. Several different combinations of electrode materials and electrolytes are used, including lead–acid, zinc–air, nickel–cadmium (NiCd), nickel–metal hydride (NiMH), lithium-ion (Li-ion), lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4), and lithium-ion polymer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flow battery</span> Type of electrochemical cell

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithium iron phosphate battery</span> Type of rechargeable battery

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanobatteries</span> Type of battery

Nanobatteries are fabricated batteries employing technology at the nanoscale, particles that measure less than 100 nanometers or 10−7 meters. These batteries may be nano in size or may use nanotechnology in a macro scale battery. Nanoscale batteries can be combined to function as a macrobattery such as within a nanopore battery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithium-ion capacitor</span> Hybrid type of capacitor

A lithium-ion capacitor is a hybrid type of capacitor classified as a type of supercapacitor. It is called a hybrid because the anode is the same as those used in lithium-ion batteries and the cathode is the same as those used in supercapacitors. Activated carbon is typically used as the cathode. The anode of the LIC consists of carbon material which is often pre-doped with lithium ions. This pre-doping process lowers the potential of the anode and allows a relatively high output voltage compared to other supercapacitors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithium–sulfur battery</span> Type of rechargeable battery

The lithium–sulfur battery is a type of rechargeable battery. It is notable for its high specific energy. The low atomic weight of lithium and moderate atomic weight of sulfur means that Li–S batteries are relatively light. They were used on the longest and highest-altitude unmanned solar-powered aeroplane flight by Zephyr 6 in August 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solid-state battery</span> Battery with solid electrodes and a solid electrolyte

A solid-state battery is an electrical battery that uses a solid electrolyte for ionic conductions between the electrodes, instead of the liquid or gel polymer electrolytes found in conventional batteries. Solid-state batteries theoretically offer much higher energy density than the typical lithium-ion or lithium polymer batteries.

The lithium–air battery (Li–air) is a metal–air electrochemical cell or battery chemistry that uses oxidation of lithium at the anode and reduction of oxygen at the cathode to induce a current flow.

A metal–air electrochemical cell is an electrochemical cell that uses an anode made from pure metal and an external cathode of ambient air, typically with an aqueous or aprotic electrolyte.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sodium-ion battery</span> Type of rechargeable battery

Sodium-ion batteries (NIBs, SIBs, or Na-ion batteries) are several types of rechargeable batteries, which use sodium ions (Na+) as their charge carriers. In some cases, its working principle and cell construction are similar to those of lithium-ion battery (LIB) types, but it replaces lithium with sodium as the intercalating ion. Sodium belongs to the same group in the periodic table as lithium and thus has similar chemical properties. However, in some cases, such as aqueous batteries, SIBs can be quite different from LIBs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Bruce</span> British chemist

Sir Peter George Bruce, is a British chemist, and Wolfson Professor of Materials in the Department of Materials at the University of Oxford. Between 2018 and 2023, he served as Physical Secretary and Vice President of the Royal Society. Bruce is a founder and Chief Scientist of the Faraday Institution.

Aluminium-ion batteries are a class of rechargeable battery in which aluminium ions serve as charge carriers. Aluminium can exchange three electrons per ion. This means that insertion of one Al3+ is equivalent to three Li+ ions. Thus, since the ionic radii of Al3+ (0.54 Å) and Li+ (0.76 Å) are similar, significantly higher numbers of electrons and Al3+ ions can be accepted by cathodes with little damage. Al has 50 times (23.5 megawatt-hours m-3) the energy density of Li and is even higher than coal.

Research in lithium-ion batteries has produced many proposed refinements of lithium-ion batteries. Areas of research interest have focused on improving energy density, safety, rate capability, cycle durability, flexibility, and reducing cost.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NASICON</span> Class of solid materials

NASICON is an acronym for sodium (Na) super ionic conductor, which usually refers to a family of solids with the chemical formula Na1+xZr2SixP3−xO12, 0 < x < 3. In a broader sense, it is also used for similar compounds where Na, Zr and/or Si are replaced by isovalent elements. NASICON compounds have high ionic conductivities, on the order of 10−3 S/cm, which rival those of liquid electrolytes. They are caused by hopping of Na ions among interstitial sites of the NASICON crystal lattice.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semi-solid flow battery</span>

A semi-solid flow battery, also known as a semi-solid state battery, is a type of flow battery using solid battery active materials or involving solid species in the energy carrying fluid. A research team in MIT proposed this concept using lithium-ion battery materials. In such a system, both positive (cathode) and negative electrode (anode) consist of active material particles with carbon black suspended in liquid electrolyte. Active material suspensions are stored in two energy storage tanks. The suspensions are pumped into the electrochemical reaction cell when charging and discharging. This design takes advantage of both the designing flexibility of flow batteries and the high energy density active materials of lithium-ion batteries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Crabtree</span> American physicist (1944–2023)

George William Crabtree was an American physicist known for his highly cited research on superconducting materials and, since 2012, for his directorship of the Joint Center for Energy Storage Research (JCESR) at Argonne National Laboratory.

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An anode-free battery (AFB) is one that is manufactured without an anode. Instead, it creates a metal anode the first time it is charged. The anode is formed from charge carriers supplied by the cathode. As such, before charging, the battery consists of a cathode, current collectors, separator and electrolyte.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Researchers Design a New Low Cost Lithium-Polysulfide Flow Battery". SciTech Daily. 2013-05-24. Retrieved 2013-12-27.
  2. 1 2 "New lithium polysulfide flow battery for large-scale energy storage". Green Car Congress. 2013-04-25. doi:10.1039/C3EE00072A . Retrieved 2013-12-27.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  3. Yang, Y.; Zheng, G.; Cui, Y. (2013). "A membrane-free lithium/polysulfide semi-liquid battery for large-scale energy storage". Energy & Environmental Science. 6 (5): 1552. doi:10.1039/C3EE00072A.
  4. Huang, Q.; Li, H.; Grätzel, M.; Wang, Q. (2013). "Reversible chemical delithiation/lithiation of LiFePO4: Towards a redox flow lithium-ion battery". Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. 15 (6): 1793–1797. Bibcode:2013PCCP...15.1793H. doi:10.1039/C2CP44466F. PMID   23262995.
  5. Zhao, Y.; Byon, H. R. (2013). "High-Performance Lithium-Iodine Flow Battery". Advanced Energy Materials. 3 (12): 1630. doi:10.1002/aenm.201300627. S2CID   98455413.