Browsing by Author "Zhang, Zhengcheng"

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    Fluorination Enables Simultaneous Improvements of a Dialkoxybenzene-Based Redoxmer for Nonaqueous Redox Flow Batteries
    (American Chemical Society, 2022) Bheemireddy, Sambasiva R.; Li, Zhiguang; Zhang, Jingjing; Agarwal, Garvit; Robertson, Lily A.; Shkrob, Ilya A.; Assary, Rajeev S.; Zhang, Zhengcheng; Wei, Xiaoliang; Cheng, Lei; Zhang, Lu; Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Purdue School of Engineering and Technology
    Redoxmers or redox-active organic materials, are one critical component for nonaqueous redox flow batteries (RFBs), which hold high promise in enabling the time domain of the grid. While tuning redox potentials of redoxmers is a very effective way to enhance energy densities of NRFBs, those improvements often accompany accelerated kinetics of the charged species, undermining stability and cycling performance. Herein, a strategy for designing redoxmers with simultaneous improvements in redox potential and stability is proposed. Specifically, the redoxmer 1,4-di-tert-butyl-2,5-bis(2,2,2-trifluoroethoxy)benzene (ANL-C46) is developed by incorporating fluorinated substitutions into the dialkoxybenzene-based platform. Compared to the non-fluorinated analogue, ANL-C46 demonstrates not only an increased (∼0.41 V) redox potential but also much enhanced stability (1.6 times) and cyclability (4 times) evidenced by electron paramagnetic resonance kinetic study, H-cell and flow cell cycling. In fact, the cycling performance of ANL-C46 is among the best of high potential (>1.0 V vs Ag/Ag+) redoxmers ever reported. Density functional theory calculations suggest that while the introduced fluorine substitutions elevate the redox potentials, they also help to depress the decomposition reactions of the charged redoxmers, affording excellent stability. The findings represent an interesting strategy for simultaneously improving energy density and stability, which could further prompt the development of high-performance redoxmers.
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    Spatially Constrained Organic Diquat Anolyte for Stable Aqueous Flow Batteries
    (ACS, 2018-09) Huang, Jinhua; Yang, Zheng; Murugesan, Vijayakumar; Walter, Eric; Hollas, Aaron; Pan, Baofei; Assary, Rajeev S.; Shkrob, Ilya A.; Wei, Xiaoliang; Zhang, Zhengcheng; Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology
    Redox-active organic materials (ROMs) are becoming increasingly attractive for use in redox flow batteries as promising alternatives to traditional inorganic counterparts. However, the reported ROMs are often accompanied by challenges, including poor solubility and stability. Herein, we demonstrate that the commonly used diquat herbicides, with solubilities of >2 M in aqueous electrolytes, can be used as stable anolyte materials in organic flow batteries. When coupled with a ferrocene-derived catholyte, the flow cells with the diquat anolyte demonstrate long galvanic cycling with high capacity retention. Notably, the mechanistic underpinnings of this remarkable stability are attributed to the improved π-conjugation that originated from the near-planar molecular conformations of the spatially constrained 2,2′-bipyridyl rings, suggesting a viable structural engineering strategy for designing stable organic materials.
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    Substituted thiadiazoles as energy-rich anolytes for nonaqueous redox flow cells
    (RSC, 2018-04) Huang, Jinhua; Duan, Wentao; Zhang, Jingjing; Shkrob, Ilya A.; Assary, Rajeev S.; Pan, Baofei; Liao, Chen; Zhang, Zhengcheng; Wei, Xiaoliang; Zhang, Lu; Mechanical Engineering and Energy, School of Engineering and Technology
    Understanding structure–property relationships is essential for designing energy-rich redox active organic molecules (ROMs) for all-organic redox flow batteries. Herein we examine thiadiazole ROMs for storage of negative charge in the flow cells. These versatile molecules have excellent solubility and low redox potentials, allowing high energy density to be achieved. By systematically incorporating groups with varying electron accepting/withdrawing ability, we have examined substituent effects on their properties of interest, including redox potentials, calendar lives of charged ROMs in electrolyte, and the flow cell cycling performance. While the calendar life of energized fluids can be tuned in a predictable fashion over a wide range, the improvements in the calendar life do not automatically translate into the enhanced cycling performance, indicating that in addition to the slow reactions of charged species in the solvent bulk, there are other parasitic reactions that occur only during the electrochemical cycling of the cell and can dramatically affect the cycling lifetime.