Researchers Create Batteries from Industrial Waste to Store Renewable Energy

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An industrial waste product has been converted into a sustainable energy storage battery by a Northwestern University team.

Even though there are numerous versions of these batteries being developed or produced for grid-scale uses, this is the first time that a waste molecule—in this case, triphenylphosphine oxide, or TPPO—has been used.

Metals like lithium and cobalt, which are obtained through extensive and even exploitative mining operations, are essential to the batteries that power our phones, gadgets, and even automobiles. Over the coming decades, there will likely be a sharp increase in demand for these vital minerals.

However, many organic industrial synthesis processes, including the manufacturing of vitamin supplements, produce thousands of tonnes of the well-known chemical byproduct TPPO annually, which is rendered unusable and needs to be carefully disposed of after manufacture.

A “one-pot” reaction enables chemists to transform TPPO into a useful product with the potent potential to store energy, paving the way for the future viability of a long-envisioned battery type known as “redox flow” batteries, according to a paper published last week in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Christian Malapit, the primary author and chemist from Northwestern, stated that engineers and materials scientists have historically controlled battery development. By molecularly transforming an organic waste product into a molecule that stores energy, synthetic chemists can advance the discipline. Our finding provides a sustainable avenue for advancement in battery technology by demonstrating the possibility of turning waste chemicals into useful resources.

It is anticipated that the global market for redox flow batteries would grow by 15% between 2023 and 2030, reaching a valuation of $720 million. Redox flow batteries employ a chemical reaction to transfer energy between electrolytes, which store energy, as opposed to lithium and other solid-state batteries that store energy in electrodes. Even though they are not as effective at storing energy, redox flow batteries are considered to be far superior options for energy storage at the grid scale, if not in our mobile phones.

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Emily Mahoney, a Ph.D. candidate in the Malapit lab and the paper’s first author, stated, “Not only can an organic molecule be used, but it can also achieve high-energy density—getting closer to its metal-based competitors—along with high stability.” “It is especially exciting to be able to demonstrate this for a molecule that is waste-derived, as these two parameters are traditionally difficult to optimise together.”

The group needed to find a method that would enable electrons to firmly pack in the solution without gradually losing storage capacity in order to attain both energy density and stability. According to Mahoney, they “ran with it” after looking back and discovering a 1968 publication that described the electrochemistry of phosphine oxides.