The lithium-based redox-flow battery, developed by the group of researchers led by Jimmy Jiang of Department of Chemistry at the University, could prove crucial for wind and solar operations, where large-scale batteries are needed to store energy during times of overproduction and release it when production drops off.
The Assistant Professor Jimmy Jiang noted that energy generation and energy consumption is always mismatched.
“That’s why it’s important to have a device that can store that energy temporarily and release it when it’s needed,” Jiang said.
The novel design removes the membrane that separates the positive and negative sides of the battery. This membrane is one of the most expensive parts of this type of battery and has previously hindered development.
The membrane-free battery exhibited high voltage and energy density, which for the first time could potentially meet the demands of large-scale green energy operations at an economically viable cost.
In his own remarks, a visiting Processor at the University of Cincinnati who also involved in the research, Soumalya Sinha, the battery’s design significantly decreases material cost, saying the team trying to achieve the same performance at a cheaper cost.
The researchers have submitted patent applications for the design, which Dr Jiang said will herald a âbattery revolution†within the next 20 years.
“I am confident about that, there is a lot of intense research going into pushing the boundaries of battery performance,”he explained.