An aqueous alkaline battery consisting of inexpensive all-iron redox chemistries for large-scale energy storage

L. Wei, M. C. Wu, T. S. Zhao, Y. K. Zeng, Y. X. Ren

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

44 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this work, an iron-based alkaline battery using the same redox-active element featuring different coordination chemistries is developed and tested. The battery achieves a significantly low active material cost per kilowatt hour ($22 kW h−1) due to the inherently inexpensive price and availability of iron oxide and iron ferricyanide, particularly when compared with state-of-the-art vanadium redox flow batteries ($118 kW h−1) or the commercialized nickel cadmium battery ($51 kW h−1). Experimental results show that the present battery creates an equilibrium cell potential of 1.2 V and its coulombic efficiency reaches as high as 99% at a current density higher than 4 mA cm−2. Moreover, the energy efficiency can be maintained above 76% and the capacity decay rate is only 0.15% per cycle at a current density of 2 mA cm−2 over 150 cycles. With these advantages, the battery offers a promising solution for low-cost energy storage applications.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)98-105
Number of pages8
JournalApplied Energy
Volume215
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2018
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Alkaline battery
  • All iron battery
  • Energy storage
  • Low cost

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Building and Construction
  • General Energy
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

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