A cost-effective alkaline polysulfide-air redox flow battery enabled by a dual-membrane cell architecture

• Published in: Nature communications 2022-05, Vol.13 (1), p.2388-2388, Article 2388
• Main Authors: Xia, Yuhua, Ouyang, Mengzheng, Yufit, Vladimir, Tan, Rui, Regoutz, Anna, Wang, Anqi, Mao, Wenjie, Chakrabarti, Barun, Kavei, Ashkan, Song, Qilei, Kucernak, Anthony R., Brandon, Nigel P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 140/146; 147/135; 639/166/898; 639/301/299; 639/4077/4079/891; 639/638/675; Batteries; Catalysts; Cost analysis; Crossovers; Cytology; Economic analysis; Electrodes; Energy costs; Energy efficiency; Energy harvesting; Energy storage; Humanities and Social Sciences; Manganese; Maximum power density; Membranes; Metal foams; multidisciplinary; Polysulfides; Power management; Rechargeable batteries; Renewable energy; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Storage batteries; Sulfur
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30044-w

With the rapid development of renewable energy harvesting technologies, there is a significant demand for long-duration energy storage technologies that can be deployed at grid scale. In this regard, polysulfide-air redox flow batteries demonstrated great potential. However, the crossover of polysulfide is one significant challenge. Here, we report a stable and cost-effective alkaline-based hybrid polysulfide-air redox flow battery where a dual-membrane-structured flow cell design mitigates the sulfur crossover issue. Moreover, combining manganese/carbon catalysed air electrodes with sulfidised Ni foam polysulfide electrodes, the redox flow battery achieves a maximum power density of 5.8 mW cm −2 at 50% state of charge and 55 °C. An average round-trip energy efficiency of 40% is also achieved over 80 cycles at 1 mA cm −2 . Based on the performance reported, techno-economic analyses suggested that energy and power costs of about 2.5 US$/kWh and 1600 US$/kW, respectively, has be achieved for this type of alkaline polysulfide-air redox flow battery, with significant scope for further reduction. Polysulfide-air redox flow batteries are an appealing energy storage technology but suffer from polysulfide crossover and the use of costly catalysts. Here, the authors report a cell structure that enables battery operation using a cost-effective catalyst while mitigating polysulfide crossover.