Enhancing
the Performance of Viscous Electrode-Based
Flow Batteries Using Lubricant-Impregnated Surfaces
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Abstract
Redox
flow batteries are a promising technology that can potentially
meet the large-scale grid storage needs of renewable power sources.
Today, most redox flow batteries are based on aqueous solutions with
low cell voltages and low energy densities that lead to significant
costs from hardware and balance-of-plant. Nonaqueous electrochemical
couples offer higher cell voltages and higher energy densities and
can reduce system-level costs but tend toward higher viscosities and
can exhibit non-Newtonian rheology that increases the power required
to drive flow. This work uses lubricant-impregnated surfaces (LIS)
to promote flow in electrochemical systems and outlines their design
based on interfacial thermodynamics and electrochemical stability.
We demonstrate up to 86% mechanical power savings at low flow rates
for LIS compared to conventional surfaces for a lithium polysulfide
flow electrode in a half-cell flow battery configuration. The measured
specific charge capacity of ∼800 mAh/(g·S) is a 4-fold
increase over previous work