The United States is the largest user of energy in the world with ∼50% of global consumption. Any change in global energy use would require a change in U.S. production and consumption of energy that is currently based primarily on the burning of non-renewable carbon sources, such as coal and natural gas. There has been significant development in renewable energy sources including, photovoltaics, wind, and hydroelectric power, but these sources can be limited by their intermittent output. Redox flow batteries (RBFs) present as a technology tailored for large energy storage capacity. The batteries consist of solutions of redox active electrolytes known as posolytes and negolytes that store energy through reversible reduction and oxidation reactions at inert electrodes. Aqueous RBFs are already commercialized, but aqueous solutions have a relatively small potential window of ~1.5 V that limit their energy density potential. Organic solvents like acetonitrile have a stability window of over 5 V and could greatly increase the energy density of the flow batteries. However, the development of non-aqueous electrolytes has challenges to overcome related to a lack of molecular stability and solubility at very high or very low potentials. Our research program looks to develop electrolytes that are stable and soluble at extreme potentials through the use of tautomerizing, redox-active, ligands in metal-ligand complexes. We report the synthesis of the tridentate ligands, their complexation with transition metal salts, and electrochemical investigation as electrolytes.

Synthesis and characterization of tautomerizing electrolytes for non-aqueous redox flow batteries

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