All-polymer particulate slurry batteries.

Yan, Wen; Wang, Caixing; Tian, Jiaqi; Zhu, Guoyin; Ma, Lianbo; Wang, Yanrong; Chen, Renpeng; Hu, Yi et al. · Nat Commun · 2019

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Redox flow batteries are promising for large-scale energy storage, but some long-standing problems such as safety issues, system cost and cycling stability must be resolved. Here we demonstrate a type of redox flow battery that is based on all-polymer particulate slurry electrolytes. Micro-sized and uniformly dispersed all-polymer particulate suspensions are utilized as redox-active materials in redox flow batteries, breaking through the solubility limit and facilitating the application of insoluble redox-active materials. Expensive ion-exchange membranes are replaced by commercial dialysis membranes, which can simultaneously realize the rapid shuttling of H<sup>+</sup> ions and cut off the migration of redox-active particulates across the separator via size exclusion. In result, the all-polymer particulate slurry redox flow batteries exhibit a highly reversible multi-electron redox process, rapid electrochemical kinetics and ultra-stable long-term cycling capability.