Susan Odom and Chad Risko published a report on new catholyte materials for non-aqueous redox flow batteries in Energy and Environmental Sciences.  This study, performed in collaboration with Prof. Fikile Brushett at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, showcases the long lifetimes of materials created in Odom's laboratory as electron donors.  This new characterization technique involves cycling a symmetric flow cell, meaning that both halves of the cell contian the same materials when at the same state of charge.  These results are promising because, for the first time, long lifetimes have been demonstrated for organic compounds in non-aqueous, or water free, electrolytes.  Flow batteries have been installed on extremely large scales in comparison to lithium-ion batteries, but so far performance has been limitied due to the electrochemical window of water, which is much more narrow that what can be achieved with organic solvents.  The groups continue to collaborate in flow battery projects and hope to report even more exciting results in the near future.

Citation: "High current density, long duration cycling of soluble organic active species for non-aqueous redox flow batteries."  Jarrod D. Milshtein, Aman Preet Kaur, Matthew D. Casselman, Jeffrey A. Kowalski, Subrahmanyam Modekrutti, Peter L. Zhang, N. Harsha Attanayake,  Corrine F. Elliott, Sean R. Parkin, Chad Risko, Fikile R. Brushett* and  Susan A. Odom* Energy Environ. Sci., 2016,9, 3531-3543. DOI: 10.1039/C6EE02027E