As well as being long-lasting (potentially up to a decade), the battery design provides other notable advantages: it is non-toxic, non-corrosive, and it can be manufactured at a relatively low cost. The battery has been developed at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
The battery is a type of flow battery, which means it is rechargable. The recharge function is the result of two chemical components dissolved in liquids contained within the system. These components are separated by a membrane. Energy is produced as a result of ion exchange, which happens through the membrane as both liquids circulate in their own compartments. the downside with such batteries, which are types of electrochemical accumulator cells, is their relative power compared with conventional batteries. The new model from Harvard overcomes this limitation.
The performance of the new battery has been enhanced by modifications made to the structures of the molecules used in the positive and negative electrolyte solutions. This has rendered the molecules water soluble. Here the molecule viologen is uded for the negative electrolyte; and ferrocene for the positive electrode. The outcome of this means that the battery loses only one percent of its capacity per 1000 cycles. This boost over and increases longevity, potentially up to ten years..
The battery can also be manufactured at a low cost, costing no more than $100 per kilowatt-hour. It is also less harmful to the environment, through the the storage solution being neutral (rather than acidic), which means if the battery is split the fluid is non-corrosive.
The new battery is described in the journal Energy Letters, in a paper titled “A Neutral pH Aqueous Organic/Organometallic Redox Flow Battery with Extremely High Capacity Retention.”
