Liquid Quinones for Solvent-Free Redox Flow Batteries

Akihiro Shimizu; Keisuke Takenaka; Naoyuki Handa; Toshiki Nokami; Toshiyuki Itoh; Jun-Ichi Yoshida

doi:10.1002/adma.201606592

Liquid Quinones for Solvent-Free Redox Flow Batteries

Adv Mater. 2017 Nov;29(41). doi: 10.1002/adma.201606592. Epub 2017 Sep 8.

Authors

Akihiro Shimizu¹, Keisuke Takenaka¹, Naoyuki Handa², Toshiki Nokami², Toshiyuki Itoh², Jun-Ichi Yoshida¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Synthetic Chemistry and Biological Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Nishikyo-ku, 615-8510, Japan.
² Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Graduate School of Engineering, Tottori University, Koyama-cho, Tottori, 680-8552, Japan.

PMID: 28885728
DOI: 10.1002/adma.201606592

Abstract

Liquid benzoquinone and naphthoquinone having diethylene glycol monomethyl ether groups are designed and synthesized as redox active materials that dissolve supporting electrolytes. The Li-ion batteries based on the liquid quinones using LiBF₄ /PC show good performance in terms of voltage, capacity, energy efficiency, and cyclability in both static and flow modes. A battery is constructed without using intentionally added organic solvent, and its high energy density (264 W h L^-1 ) demonstrates the potential of solvent-free organic redox flow batteries using liquid active materials.

Keywords: energy density; liquid materials; non-aqueous electrolytes; quinones; redox flow batteries.